


Fledgling Promise

by Neutralfan



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Comics), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: A lot of the hp characters don't come on until later, Accidental Baby Acquisition, Adoption, Baby Harry Potter, Before any of the events of the Guardians of the galaxy movies, But they're mentioned, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Study, Child Abandonment, Drinking to Cope, F/M, Family, Flashbacks, Found Family, Found harry potter, Gen, Harry Potter raised by others, Harry grows up with the original Ravager team, Healing, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Love, Misguided Albus Dumbledore, None of these apply to harry potter, Past Abuse, Past Child Death, Past child experimentation, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Ravagers - Freeform, Ravagers as a family, Slow Build, Space Pirates, Stakar and Aleta's father was evil, Surprise Baby, Taking bits from the comics, Vernon Dursley Being an Asshole, Vernon is mean, Vomiting, Well-Meaning Albus Dumbledore, and a lot from the books, and bits from the movies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-25
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:41:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 84,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26652376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neutralfan/pseuds/Neutralfan
Summary: Harry Potter unwanted by his relatives is abandoned in the woods several hours away from his Aunts home on Privet Drive in early November 1981. But he was not alone in those woods.Aleta Ogord, Ravager Captain, second only to the admiral of the fleet her estranged husband, loves exploring new planets. Or new areas of old planets in search of something new. Terra surprises her more than most planets do. This time though she's gotten a little more than she thought was possible.Ravagers don't do kids, but she can't just leave the little one out in the cold under a bush.
Relationships: Aleta Ogord/Stakar Ogord
Comments: 105
Kudos: 267





	1. Fledgling Found

Brilliant colors of red, yellow and orange seemed to have been painted on the leaves that littered the forest floor as Aleta walked along one of the paths. Her footsteps almost silent in comparison to how they sounded on her ship. The cold November air didn’t bother her, it was colder out in deep space where she normally spent her days.

She was a Ravager captain, one of the originals, one of the seven flames, head of one of the ninety-nine clans. Ravagers were a special breed of space pirate, they stole from everyone, except each other, loyal to their Admerle Stakar Ogord, Altea’s estranged husband. Usually this meant that she got first pick of assignments when one needed the touch of one of the seven captains, not this time though. She’d drawn the short straw so to speak, an assignment to collect minerals from Terra’s poles. Getting this assignment probably had something to do with the fact that she’d made a joke at Stakar’s expense during the last meeting.

She didn’t mind it, unlike some of the meanal tasks that got doled out to the different factions a trip to Terra was refreshing. She liked the little backwater planet, there were so many different cultures, foods, books, and languages, the latter of which was her hobby. She had a gift for picking up languages and since Terra had over six thousand of them she was never without something new to learn.

When they’d finished collecting the minerals, anyone on her gallion was allowed to mingle, so long as they could blend in and not lose any advanced technology. Aleta had come down on her own, she had wanted to explore an island that she hadn’t been able to before, though she could speak the language albeit with an accent that was deemed “American”. The British isles were beautiful in her opinion and she had spent the better part of the day quietly making her way around the island. She needed to leave soon, as the sun was beginning to set which was the deadline for everyone to be back on the main ship that was hovering just out of sight of the Terran’s satellites which were getting better at finding things. Soon they’d only be able to do this run if they were completely cloaked, which took up a lot of energy. Energy that Aleta’s ship didn’t always have with her tendency to stay at the edge of unknown space where there were fewer opportunities to use the solar chargers, or purchase fuel. That was a problem for future Aleta, who would probably cuss out her past self for leaving it up to her.

Aleat was almost back to her ship when she heard something behind her, it was still distant enough that she couldn’t identify it but close enough that if she didn’t move now she’d be spotted. Quickly she darted into the tree line allowing the long shadows to conceal her from the view of the path and waited. She needed to find out if she was being followed and if the noise was coming from a friend or foe. For a while nothing much happened other than the darkness getting thicker as the noise became louder and distinguishable, the noise was a discernible cry. A small childlike cry. Slowly Aleta edged back towards the path, curious as to why a small child would be out in the middle of a forest at this time of day. It was then that she saw him.

A large man, though large was the only word she could remember in English to describe him, was carrying a basket. The contents of the basket were making the crying noise, though the noises were now becoming discernable words, alternating between ‘Ma’, ‘Da’, ‘Patty’, and ‘Mooy’. It soon became clear to Aleta that the people the child was calling for were not coming as the man growled at the child to shut up. It was all she could do not to jump out of the tree line and stab the man right then for his harshness towards the child. He passed Aleta’s hiding spot and found a bush that hadn’t lost all of its leaves yet and stuck the basket underneath it. The action only served to aggravate the child and he started crying again. The man managed to waddle away and out of sight before Aleta had gotten over her shock, she knew that this wasn’t what normal parents on this planet did with their offspring. She couldn’t stand it any longer and walked out from her hiding spot to where the small child had been left. He was still crying but fighting to get out of his basket and blue blanket.

“Shhh,” she said leaning over to pick him up with an ease that she didn’t know she still possessed. He stopped crying for a moment to look her over, her soft tone and gentle hands having soothed him for the moment. He gave big sniffles and took deep breaths before sticking a hand in his mouth as she carefully settled him onto her hip mindful of the weapons that were concealed under her clothing.

“It’s alright, now let’s see what’s in your basket, I might be able to get you back home.”

“Ma?” He said his big green eyes searching her own, they were almost the exact same shade as her own eyes. Her breath caught for a moment, almost allowing herself to be lost in a memory of another small child's bright green eyes. But she quickly surpassed the memory as there wasn't time for her to dwell on the painful past. Lowering herself to the basket’s level before pulling it close enough to peer inside. There wasn’t much at first glance, the blue blanket, a torn piece of paper and an open envelope, and a small black stuffed dog.

“Patty,” the little one sniffled, reaching for the stuffed animal.

Aleata smiled and handed the dog to him which he promptly wiped his snotty face all over. She turned her attention back to the basket, she was losing light faster than before and didn’t have a flashlight on her. She sighed before re adjusting the toddler so she could use the hand that was holding him. Carefully she produced small streams of light from her fingertips. For the child’s amusement she made them dance between her fingers as she picked up the envelope to see if she could glean anything from it. Alas there was only a name on the front, ‘Petunia Dursley’ with nothing inside. She shifted the blanket to see if there was something hidden there while trying to keep the little one from falling or hurting himself on the light particles that she was using to see with. When she moved the blanket she found yet another envelope. This one was slightly thicker and larger than the other and it had her name on it. Not just her name either, it was addressed to herself and Stakar.

She’d decided to take the little one with her. Shocking the entire crew in the process as not only had they never seen their Captain with a baby before, but the baby was a male. Aleta ignored them in favor of putting out for deep space. Thankfully the little one was asleep now after an hour of walking him around her cabin trying to get him to settle. But like most children of that age he only wanted to explore his new surroundings, and when he tired of that he wanted what was familiar to him. As he couldn’t have it he started crying. Aleta did her best for him she’d been a mother once. But his cries and pleas for his own mother didn’t cease until he’d cried himself to sleep in her arms. She settled him down on her cot wrapped in the blanket from his basket, which she had brought with her, and his stuffed Patty next to him.

She walked across the room to her chair and gave a sigh of relief after sitting down, casting her eyes to the desk next to her she noted her data pad was lighting up with messages. She knew that the moment she picked it up that she wouldn’t be able to get any peace until she’d answered each and every one of the messages. Instead she picked up the envelope from the boy’s basket, she had placed the letter on the desk earlier. Turning it over in her hands she pondered on if she should open it now, or wait until she met up with Stakar to open it. She gave in and parted the seal to draw out a couple of pages that were inside the envelope.

_“Dear Admiral and Captain Ogord,_

_My name is Lily Evens Potter, since you are reading this letter then it means that I and my husband James are dead. Killed by a mass murderer who wants our son dead. I am what we call a seer, I’m not trained but I do know that my son is in danger and that your names and faces keep coming up in my dreams. I’ve seen you care for my son, love him as your own, I’ve also seen what will happen to him should he stay with my sister Petunia Dursly. She hates magic._

_Myself and James are magical, literally, and so is our son Harry. Harry is short for Harrison James Potter. He was born on July 31st, 1980 in England._

_James and I will do everything in our power to keep him safe, but I know that our time with him is short. Please if you decide to take him into your family, love him, treat him as if he were your own son. I’ve included a short page of things that he likes, doesn’t like, things that scare him, and some medical information pages that might be useful._

_Beware of Albus Dumbledoor, he means well but he only sees things as being for “the greater good”. He will overlook the needs of one, if it means the safety of the whole of the wizarding world. I fear he will try and turn my son into a weapon for slaughter should he be allowed too much influence over him._

_Please let Harry know that we love him, always. No matter what happens or what he does we will always love him and be proud of him. “_

The letter was signed by Lily Potter and James Potter, leading Aleta to believe that perhaps James hadn’t known about this letter. She flipped through the papers as she let her thoughts wander, magic was a tricky subject in space. Not many had it, but those who did swore by it, used it to either better themselves or to harm others. From what she could gather it must be the same on Terra too. She would need to speak with Krugarr about this as he was around Terra and it’s magic users more than the rest of them. A smile creeped across her lips, he probably wouldn’t mind a little protije either. She would have to convince Stakar though.

She slipped up to the top deck a half hour later, after going over the messages on her data pad she knew that she’d need to call Stakar to set up a meeting to make the mineral trade off. If she could kill two birds with one meeting then that would be ideal. She just had to figure out how to frame her accidental baby acquisition.

“Ma’am,” her first mate said before vacating the pilot's chair for her, Luta was new but she had yet to learn that Aleta rarely took over the piloting of the ship when it wasn’t her turn. Aleta waved her hand in a negative fashion.

“I’m not staying up here long, unless you’d like to watch the baby?”

She watched the Xandarian pale at the idea and quickly sat back down. Aleta smiled and went over to the controls that monitored the incoming and outgoing communications of the ship. She could make this call from her quarters but she had a feeling that he wasn’t going to be happy, at least not at first.

“Girls, I just want you to know, the little boy isn’t being kidnapped but adopted.”

Taking the stunned silence for what it was, Aleta pulled up Stakar’s contact info and put through her call. She smiled at her own ingenuity at silencing her bridge crew so effectively. Waiting for her husband to answer the call gave her enough time to start second guessing herself on what she was going to say to him. Their relationship wasn’t the best right now. They hadn’t really taken the time to try and work it out, if he took this the wrong way it just might end everything.

She was still caught up in her musings when the call was picked up and showed her husband’s face on the screen, she saluted out of habit as her brain tried to catch up.

Stakar didn’t look much different from when she’d seen him last, though there might be a bit more grey hair peppered into the dark brown mop on his head. He took pride in his appearance, making sure that his navy uniform was always neat and nothing was out of place. In the vacuum of space that was possible. But they’d grown up together on a humid planet, where his hair had resembled an overgrown forest more than the neat personification he projected now. She knew that he slathered about a standard ton of hair product into his hair to keep it from moving. She still called it a mop though, for old times sake.

She was his opposite, only giving a care about her looks when she needed to, her black hair normally hung limply around her shoulders and over her face, the ends ragged. Though it was currently pulled back and out of her face, Harry had tried to snag a chunk of it before she got him to sleep. She was not in her green Ravager uniform as she’d been in civilian clothes while on Terra and hadn’t had time to change them.

“Aleta?” A greeting and a question all wrapped up in one word. They almost didn’t need words to communicate with each other, they’d been together that long and some things just didn’t change.

“The mineral run is complete and we’re on our way back at the moment.”

He smiled, no hint of malice or teasing showed in his face at the moment, “Good, I’ll set the meeting around twelve jumps?,” she nodded, swallowing hoping he didn’t see her nerves.

“Nothing went wrong?”

“Not really no. But I did make a decision.”

She could feel the eyes of the bridge crew on her, even if they weren’t turned to her they were still boring a hole into her. Stakar looked startled and leaned back in his pilot's chair, as if that would provide him more protection from what she was about to say.

“Did you?”

He was being cautious, she could have either made a decision about what she was going to eat for dinner, or what she was going to steal next. Even after all the years they’d been together it could be hard for him to figure out what she was going to do when she sprung things on him as she was doing now.

“I’ve decided that I’m gonna try the whole parent thing again.”

Pensive and caution went to shock very quickly on his face, “you’re not- Aleta I don’t think this is the time for such discussions.”

She wanted to laugh, and would years later, but for now she kept her face blank.

“Now is the perfect time seeing as I’ve just semi adopted an abandoned baby who had an envelope with both our names on it.”

Stakar stared at her for a long moment before giving a dramatic sigh, “I’ll meet you at the jump point.”

“Perfect.”

She closed the call before turning on her heel to make her exit.

“Captain, Ma’am?”

Aleata paused to look at Luta, an eyebrow raised with a mild interest.

“Congratulations.”

Aleta blinked at the woman who turned back to watch the stars as she guided the ship. Of all the things that she could have said that wasn’t one that had crossed Aleta’s mind. A smug smile slipped back onto her face and she continued back towards her cabin, she had to change before the first jump and prepare to meet with her husband.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This might turn into a long fic, (I've got so much material right now) or a series we'll see. 
> 
> Let me know what you think! I love comments. 
> 
> (Credit where Credit is due, I borrowed the name for Aleta's first mate from another Fic I just can't remember who's so if you know it please let me know so that I can credit them here)


	2. Stakar

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stakar has to decide if he's going to help or not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a warning, there are light references to Child Abuse, Experimentation, and Child Death in this chapter. It's a part of the Ogord's past in this and shapes how they deal with Harry. If you think this needs a rating change because of it let me know. (or better tags I honestly didn't think about it until editing this chapter.)

So let me get this strait-”

Ever since he’d gotten the call from Aleta, Stakar had been out of sorts. To the point that Martinex, Stakar’s first mate, was intervening,“she went to Terra to collect minerals, and came back with a baby?” He asked, stunned.They were in Stakar’s office for privacy, the skuttlebutt around the ship was bad enough without adding this to the mix prematurely. Not when Stakar couldn’t spin the situation to his own advantage.

A baby? Why hadn’t she said anything about wanting to be a mother again? He would have gladly assisted her in the endeavor. Perhaps it was something that had only hit her in the last couple of weeks or so and she hadn’t had the chance to speak to him about it. But with all their problems, he really didn’t think a baby was going to help. Much less a foundling.

‘ _Like me_ ’, he thought bitterly.  
For years he’d been mocked for not having a family, for not having a surname, until he’d been taken in and fostered by Aleta’s father. A harsh man who could only see his goal of creating the perfect weapon. Stakar never wanted to think about him again.

Some nights in the cold vacuum of space, his mind wouldn’t let him rest, all he could do was go over his memories. Memories of the man's cruelty to himself and Aleta. Of the last time he’d seen him alive shortly after he’d killed his own grandchildren. Stakar would spend hours going over each memory, trying in vain to figure out what he could have done differently. Searching for some miniscule detail that he could have changed, just to have his children safe. Time travel was not one of his skill sets, even if he could change the past and mold it to his liking.

It made him bitter, which had driven his wife away. His only reminder of what could have been.

He was getting better, therapy was helping, he was at least admitting he had a problem and making an attempt to mend the wound rather than let it fester. At this point though, he couldn’t see taking on a child. He’d taken on enough people to fill the void his children had left behind.

Martinex for one, he’d been rough around the edges, no pun intended, when Stakar had found him. He’d taught him how to run a ship as if he’d been born to it. Charlie-22 was the brother he’d always wanted, Mainframe and Krugarr the friends he never got to have growing up.

Then there was Yondu, he’d taken the young Centarian on fresh out of the slave pits of the Kree empire and taught him everything. It was like having a son again. Aleta had even taken a shine to him and taken him under her wing. He was still cutting his teeth on his new Captain’s flame, their ninety-ninth in the fleet.

He didn’t need a child to fill the still ragged hole in his heart. He was starting to really see that he did need Aleta. But they always ended up fighting when he tried to talk about the abyss that lay between them.

“Isn’t she breaking the code?”

Martinex’s question broke into his thoughts, something the man did often without realising it.

“I don’t know,” he sighed, “I’ll have to hear her out but she said it was abandoned-”

“She gets to adopt a kid? Just like that?” Martinex looked alarmed.

“No, like I said I need to hear what happened and then we can go from there as to what needs to be done. More likely than not it will end up in an orphanage in the Nova district.”

Martinex made a face at that, and since he was made out of crystalline matter that was a feat.

“Those are horrid places, I wouldn’t send an enemy there.”

Stakar could feel a headache coming on, he didn’t want to think about the consequences to Aleta’s actions for the child. Who’s family would probably be worried sick by now. No she’d just have to make a return trip and take him back.

“I need to get some paperwork done before she gets here, ping me when she lands.”

“Yes sir,” Martinex said, before leaving the office.

Stakar waited until the other man had left to pull out the old data pad that he kept hidden in his desk, a few swipes and a picture with three smiling faces appeared on the screen. Two girls and a boy captured just days before their thirteenth birthday. He sighed after a while before turning it off and leaned back in his chair. This wasn’t going to be easy. Convincing Aleta to change her mind was like trying to move a sun. It didn’t matter what you tried, someone was going to end up burned.

Aleta had refused to come off her mship. Stakar trudged up the gangplank of the craft keeping an eye out for her as he did. She was waiting for him past the cargo hold near the ladder that would lead up to the flight deck.

“I need to know everything,” he said, his voice low in a formal attempt to sooth her rather than spark a fight.

“You should read this first,” she held out a piece of paper, “it’s what convinced me to bring him along rather than find him a new home on Terra.”

Stakar stared at her for a minute as he reached out for the paper. It was thick and had a bit of weight to it, and scrawled across the top of it were delicate swoops and lines forming words that he had a hard time deciphering. Once the translator took over he could plainly see his name and Aleta’s on the front of the envelope. He felt his brow furrow as he extracted the papers to read.

As he read the letter his breathing slowed, jaw setting, teeth starting to grind. Someone was trying to kill a child, and another was trying to use it as a weapon? It hit too close. Far too close to the past he was trying to heal.

“Are you going to hit me if I swear?”

She gave a chuffing sound, “doubtful.”

“Blast it,” he said, something close to a chuckle came from her direction but he chose to ignore it, “how daft do you have to be to think that a baby is a threat. Especially a Terran human.”

She didn’t say anything, he looked over the other pages that had been included with the letter, the baby was only a few months past his first birthday if he had his Terran dates right. ‘ _And he’s already a target for those who would use him for their own gain_.’

“Magic?”

“Apparently.”

She was looking at him with large eyes, eyes that coming from anyone else would have been seen as pleading. She had only ever pleaded twice in her lifetime.

“How did you find this,” he paused, “Harrison?”

“I’m guessing that the sister mentioned in the letter had someone drop him off in the woods. He wouldn’t have survived out there very long.”

Stakar felt torn. On the one hand they were being asked by the boys dead parents to take him in, as their own no less. But on the other,

“What about the code.”

Aleta blinked, “I didn't steal him, I’m not selling him. We’d be taking him in as our child.”

“We?”

She just glared at him, “I was hoping that you’d be interested in helping me, at least when he gets to the age where I’ll be the last person he wants to talk to.”

Stakar sighed, shoving his panic down, the responsibility of taking on a small child hitting him once again. How could he take on a child in his position, before when they’d been raising their own, it had been different. He’d been a simple shipping captain, and Aleta an Ship designer when she wasn’t caring for the children. Now he was incharge of so much, too add a child on top of it. Were either of them sane to even consider this?

“Ok, ok I’ll go along with this,” he held up his hand, “on one condition.”

“Name it.”

She looked elated. He could ask her to do just about anything in this moment and she would agree, and he had every intention of putting her resolve to the test.

“Therapy, you and me together.”

He could see she wasn’t happy about the idea of starting counseling. He had been trying to get her to go for a few years now. But she couldn’t get past what ‘therapy’ had been on their home world. In short, whatever was bothering the afflicted was erased from their memory. Aleta didn’t want to forget, swearing that she would cling to everyone of her memories with her dying breath. He didn’t press. But he would now, for the boy’s sake.

“That’s my condition, for at least one year you work on healing your mind. Maybe we could even get to a better place as a couple if we both worked on it together.”

She gave a huff at that, and he hit on the only other angle that he had, “If not for our relationship, then do it for the boy Aleta. You know how hard this will be, and with a small child that has just lost both of his primary care givers. I can only imagine that it’s going to be ten times as hard.”

Aleta stared at the floor, unwilling to look at him it seemed. He waited. With everything that he knew about her position on therapy, he could only believe that she was warring within herself. At the end of the day, if she needed him he’d be there. He always was, it was a part of the vows they’d made to each other when they’d run away from her father.

“Alright,” she said after a lengthy pause, “I’ll give it a try.”

“That’s all I ask. Now where is Harrison? I’m sure you didn’t just leave him on the gallion with your crew.”

Before she could answer screams came from the flight deck above them. Aleta dashed up the ladder and he followed slowly. The sight that met his eyes was, well it wasn’t what he was expecting. A small boy wrapped in a blue blanket was laid on the pilot's chair currently screaming his lungs out, little hands scratching at his forehead. He noticed that the boy had messy black hair as Aleta lifted him into her arms whispering soothing words to him as she did.

“It’s alright little one, it’s alright you're safe now. We’re going to take care of you.”

Stakar walked closer as the crying turned to gross sniffles, “Ma?”

“She-she had to go away for a while, so we,” Aleta looked over at him, and the boy did too, “are going to take care of you. Does that sound like fun?”

Stakar walked closer, he could now see that Harrison’s eyes were the same color as Aleta’s. As he watched her gently rub the child’s back to comfort him one thing became abundantly clear, they would be keeping the little boy. No matter what he was theirs and nothing was going to change his mind on that.

Stakar led them towards the med bay of his ship. He was quieter now taking in his new surroundings if Stakar had to guess. Not that there was much to see, the special orange lights were dimmed in this section of the ship for two reasons, one it was easier on patients eyes and two it was almost time for the night cycle of the ship. Stakar didn’t like the orange cast that the lights gave off and tended to avoid this hall at all costs. He did have to come down here from time to time, such was the duty of the ship’s Captain. But if he could get away with it, he would send Marty.

He fielded the salutes of the few people as they passed, though they were few and far between after they left the hanger. Aleta dealt with the child’s reactions to whoever was passing them. They couldn’t have him being fearful of anyone who didn’t look like a human. He seemed to be taking it well as there hadn’t been any crying. Perhaps he was just in shock though.

“Have you looked into Fallow lights?”

“Hm?”

He looked over his shoulder at his wife who had posed the question.

“Fallow lights, they’re just on the market and work really well with most species' eyes, even those who are sensitive to light. They don’t make the high frequency that the ones you’ve got in this hall do. Which is why we feel mildly ill whenever we’re around them.”

“I take it that you’ve got some already?”

“Only because someone picked them up on a solo run a few months back. We’re also using less energy in the areas where we’ve got them set up.”

“I’ll have to look into it.”

Anything to not have to deal with this creeped out feeling he got in the evenings. Which probably meant he’d be handing the job off to Martinex to look into it and then he’d ‘ok’ the order. Maintenance was going to just love him and his spontaneous order of new light bulbs for the entire ship.

They arrived at the Medical bay where they were greeted with the smell of sanitizing odors and bright lights, well brighter than what was in the hallway anyway. A man with silver hair and cold blue eyes looked up as they entered.

Dr. Zhane Karr was well known for his cheerful attitude and optimistic outlook on most things. But if you came to him with a paper cut he’d stick the injury in salt water, just because you were wasting his time.

“Admiral, Captain to what do we owe this surprise?” He asked, after saluting them both.

Stakar stepped aside from where he’d been shielding most of Harrison from view. The Doctor’s eyes went wide when he saw the boy who had equally large eyes as he looked at the newest person in his life. Harrison promptly turned his head back into Aleta’s shoulder giving a small whimper of protest. Stakar was starting to think that they didn’t have much longer before he’d start crying again.

“We’ve found this little guy and need him checked out before we decide what to do with him.”

He could feel the daggers that Aleta was aiming at the back of his head. If she had a free hand he had no doubt that she’d be throwing them. While they had already decided what they were going to do with Harrison, the rest of the crew didn’t need to know that yet.

“Certainly Sir,” Zhane said, his surprise melting into professionalism, “we can get right on that if you’ll follow me.”

The exam didn’t take long, and worked out surprisingly well. Stakar had expected Harrison to throw a fit. But he only got fussy when he wasn’t allowed to grab onto the medical instruments that Zhane was using to check his vitals for any injuries. But this was quickly soothed by Aleta distracting him with his stuffed toy.

“Hm, did he have that cut on his forehead when you found him?”

Stakar looked at Aleta who frowned, “he did, he’s been scratching at it when upset.”

“It’s giving off a weird signal to my instruments, almost like when Captain Krugarr is here and performing magic while I’m running diagnostics. But not as large.”

“Interesting,” so the boy was magic after all, or his cut was. Stakar didn’t know too much about magic, he tended to get all muddled when he tried to research it. Krugarr said that was because ‘magic’ wanted him to stay in his lane so to speak. So he left him to interpret anything mystical.

But in his limited understanding of magic, he’d never come across a group that had abrasions that performed magic.

“But he’s alright otherwise?” Aleta asked, she was now holding the increasingly sleepy child in her arms.

“I see nothing wrong with him, though I’ve got the scanner set to Xandarian-” he trailed off giving them a questioning look.

“He’s Terran,” Stakar said.

“Oh, well then he’s fine, except for the cut, and the fact that he’s a bit dehydrated. I’ll get some ointment for it so that infection doesn’t set in. You’ll need to keep him from scratching at it if it’s to heal up nicely. I’ll be back shortly.”

He left the trio alone, and Stakar looked over the small child again. He’d been doing it a lot in the last forty minutes that he’d known the boy. He had been well taken care of, that much was evident by the high quality blanket and clothes he wore. Unless Aleta had gotten those things for him. Which got him thinking, they didn’t have very much in the way of acceptable baby things. He’d need toys, some chewable books, clothes, and a bed was going to be something for the immediate future.

“We could say we found him on a slaver’s ship,” Aleta said, quietly grabbing his attention, “for legal reasons.”

Before he could reply Zhane came back into the room, “I took the liberty to put together some feeding supplements, they should be done in a few minutes.”

He swiftly applied the ointment and bandage to the now sleeping boy’s head and exited, presumably to get the aforementioned supplements.

“And here I was just thinking about what supplies we’d need for him.”

“Yeah, I’ve got a few diapers in my satchel, but nothing else.”

He sighed, “we’re not too far from a port, we can go looking tomorrow.”

Just then the doctor came back, “here’s the supplements, for now just give them when he’s hungry, and he seems to be around the age of eating solid foods so see if there’s anything he likes in the mess. If he refuses food then bring him back and I’ll see what can be done about it.”

“Thank you,” Stakar said, and he meant it. He hadn’t even thought about the food issue yet.

They left and went towards his cabin, the lights cleared up into the emergency fluorescents that were used at night time for the majority of the ship. He pressed his hand onto the biolock when they reached his quarters to open the door.

The room was as neat as his uniform, everything in its place and neatly filed away. He was sure that Aleta would do something before she left to mess it up, leave her mark as she liked to say.

There was a desk along the wall to his right, a bathroom to the left with hot and cold water, and in front of him was a large bed. Perfect for two or three adults to sleep in. There was also a closet on the left side of the room that was hardly used. The walls were lined with books, and a few knick knacks here and there, but mostly books. Or as Aleta put it, his second wife.

Aleta walked over to the bed and settled Harrison in the middle of the bed, he was wrapped around his stuffed toy sound asleep. When she pulled back the calm demeanor that she’d had on since he’d seen her melted away.

“I can’t keep him on my ship.”

“I know.”

“Then you’re willing to keep him here? To have me here?”

“You’ve always had an open invitation Aleta,” he said, softly. She seemed to process that as she didn’t follow up. She allowed her body to relax and ran a hand through her hair, only to get her fingers tangled in the tie she had holding it out of reach of small hands.

“What did you mean when you said, ‘for legal reasons’?” He asked.

She didn't’ say anything for a while, “I intend to adopt him, there’s no sense in taking him in as our own without making it official.”

His chest did a funny tightening thing, as if the air levels were off and he wasn’t getting enough of what his body needed to survive. She wanted to adopt the boy, not just take care of him, or foster him. But to make him hers.

“You don’t have to adopt him,” Her words bit into him.

“I just thought that-” He stopped himself. Hadn’t he longed for a family, and not just one that would take him in but one that would love him and refer to him as one of their own? Isn’t that what he tried to embody with the Ravagers? It would be hypocritical of him not to give the boy what he so desperately wanted when he’d been in the same boat. But how could he take another son? John would be hurt. But then again John was dead. Stakar looked over at the sleeping boy, he’d just lost everything that was familiar to him. His home, parents, planet.

“It’s not- it’s not replacing them is it?”

Aleta stared at him several beats passed before she answered, “no, it’s not. He’s not John. He will never be John, Tara, or Sitia. He’s just- he needs a family, and I remember what you went through. I refuse to be my father, if I’m going to do this then I’m going all the way.”

“Just like you always do,” he said, his voice a bit horse from emotions that he wanted to stuff back into the dark corners he’d hidden them in. “I’ll adopt him too.”

Aleta gave him a small smile before walking over to him to pull him into a hug which he returned. They could do this. It wouldn’t be easy, but if they could help this little boy have a better life than they had, maybe it would be worth it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think! Or if you have any questions, feel free to ask.


	3. Supplies and cranky Babies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings for Child death reference, teen experimentation reference. Only referenced, no specifics, please be safe.

It had been a long time since she’d woken up next to a baby. But it wasn’t as jarring as she’d expected it to be. Honestly she was more surprised that she was in Stakar’s bed instead of her own. He was on the other side of the bed with Harrison in between them. The latter of them was awake and had turned onto his stomach and was making quiet sounds as he took in his new surroundings.

Green eyes met her own and his face lit up a bit, “Ba?”

“Good morning to you too,” she said, her voice laden with sleep.

“Nmphm.”

Aleta chuckled as Harrison’s head whipped around to look at where Stakar was stirring, startled by the man’s sudden contribution to the conversation.

“Ba?”

She scrubbed a hand across her face in a feeble attempt to banish all sleep. Yesterday had been draining in a manor that she hadn’t considered. But it was a new day, and there was more to do now than there had been yesterday. Not only did she have her regular duties, she had to keep track of the baby. Not to mention that they had agreed to get supplies for him today. Which should be fun. It had been a couple of years since she’d gone on a proper shopping trip, even if it wasn’t for her.

There were so many unknowns with this, a part of her was now wondering if she truly had lost the last bit of her sanity as some claimed. But when the green eyes swung back to her, their owner watching her inquisitively, she couldn’t help but feel something bubbling inside her.

It was that he was cute. That was it, like Yondu and his trinkets. There was no way it was anything more than that seeing as she’d only had him for a little over a day.

“Stakar.”

“Nphff.”

“Get up, I’m not doing this on my own,” she said, sitting up as she did. Harrison needed a bath, and fed, though the smell that was emanating off of the little boy could simply be that he needed a diaper change. She stood up looking around for the satchel she’d brought with her, it had the meager amount of baby things that had been with the boy when she’d rescued him.

Had she done that? Rescued him that is? If she’d just left him there would the man have changed his mind and come back for him? Had she rescued him or kidnaped him? She didn’t think the answer would be clear for a while, or at least not when she hadn’t had anything to wake her up for the morning.

“Stay,” she told Harrison before getting up to get her satchel. It was old, and had been lovingly repaired many times, she wouldn’t even consider that it had been repaired so many times that perhaps nothing of the original remained. It’s sentimental value meant too much to her. A gift, from her daughter. Nothing short of complete destruction would force her to part with it.

“Make up your mind,” Stakar said, having finally found his voice.

“I was talking to the baby.”

“Baba, Paddy.” Harrison said, having sat himself up to look between the pair of adults.

“Did you understand that?” Stakar asked, his brow furrowing.

“Only the second word, it’s what he calls his dog toy.”

Stakar nodded, “well that’s good to know, does he know any more words?”

“A few, they seem to be names though.”

“We’re gonna have to teach him words aren’t we,” he sounded resigned.

“Babaaa!”

Harrison was starting to sound distressed, Aleta walked over picking up the boy.

“We need to get a move on if we want to get everything done today.”

“Ma?”

The boy was looking around for the aforementioned person. His eyes started getting wild, his lips trembling. In her gut she knew what was about to happen, and that stopping it was useless. He’d probably never spent more than a night away from his parents before. That he’d gone with her and had been an easy child thus far had been almost miraculous.

“Mama, Da?”

“Harrison,” she said, but he didn’t respond, just kept moving around trying to find his mother.

“Harry?”

He looked at her, she gave him a small smile, “let’s get you all ready for today, we’re going to do one of my favorite things in the universe, shopping.”

She’d practically sang her words trying to distract him. Ignoring her husband's face she continued to talk to him in this manor as she walked off to the bathroom.

“Stakar, you’ll need to come with, we’re going to need to see a lawyer today too.” She called over her shoulder, if looks were any indication of his inner thoughts he was terrified by her ability to sound threatening even when her voice was as lithe as a happy childs.

The distraction had only worked so long before Harrison was crying and unreasonable. Aleta was currently trying to coax him into eating a little food in the mess hall. Fully aware that she was being watched by everyone.

Stakar had been no help. In fact he only made it worse. For reasons unknown to her when Harrison couldn’t see Stakar’s face he would lean towards him, but when he did see his face he got upset and melted down. The pattern kept repeating, to the point where they’d canceled going out as a trio to get things for the little boy for now. They had hoped that he’d want to take a nap and that they could go then, but he seemed determined to stay awake.

He was cranky, and was refusing food and water, which was alarming her. He had been in their care for almost two days now and hadn’t touched a thing.

“Come on Harry,” she hated that name, it sounded so callous in Xandarian, even worse in Trade Language, and do not get her started on how it would sound in Middle Arcartian, her native language. But it was the only name he’d really respond to.

“Please try some, it's sweet,” the list had said he liked sweet foods, and Aleta was desperate to get anything into him. She was trying fruit for now, but if he continued to not eat she was not above giving him candy from Martinex’s stash. Which she would replace later.

“How’s it going?”

Aleta looked up to see Dr. Karr had taken a seat across from her, her lapse in attention had allowed Harry to push her hand away from his mouth. She scowled at the man before heaving a sigh, setting the fruit down on her plate in the process.

“Take a wild guess.”

“I took the liberty of sending some studies to the Admiral,” Zhane said, “about how adoption affects young children, they’ve all been found to be pretty universal and should help you with this one.”

“How did-”

“Skuttlebutt,” he said, simply, “the Falkor and the Starhawk seem to have some kind of information arrangement when it comes down to gossip. Don’t ask me what it is, I just hear the end results of it.”

Aleta gave a huff, then a jerk when she felt a tug on her hair, “that hurts. Don’t pull.”

She gently disentangled the boy’s hand from her hair, she’d have to tie it up again if he kept at it.

“Ba?”

His voice was quiet, and his hand now free of her hair wouldn’t let go of her fingers. He then tapped her hand again before looking up at her with big eyes.

“I don’t understand,” she said, admitting defeat. To an infant. This was not her best day.

“He might be grieving.”

Aleta looked up at the doctor, who was observing Harry’s behavior, “what?”

“He might be grieving, if you were suddenly removed from your family for whatever reason, and put in a place full of new things and people, wouldn’t you feel grief over what you’d lost?”

“You’re telling me that-” she started to say, but stopped. It made sense, he’d lost both his parents, been placed with relatives that then decided to ‘dispose’ of him. Only for Aleta to find him and bring him on board a Ravager ship. All in the space of a few days.

“Scratch that, how do I deal with it if that’s what he’s-”

She cut herself off abruptly at the feeling of pain in one of the fingers that Harry was holding. She took a deep breath before looking down to see that he had shoved her index finger into his mouth and had apparently decided to bite down, hard. Thankfully he didn’t have many teeth, and what he did have wasn't that sharp. She should have worn her gauntlets, then she couldn’t be grinding her teeth in pain, or holding back her frustration with the child.

“Harrison James Potter,” he looked up at her, his mouth releasing her finger in surprise, “do not bite me.”

She quickly picked up the piece of dried fruit again, “bite this.”

This time he bit the fruit, a look of surprise crossed his face as he thoughtfully chewed on it.

Zhane was chuckling, “I’ll see what I can find and send it to the Admiral's data pad, I’m sure you’ll have no trouble getting it from him.”

Aleta let him go, thinking over what he’d said. Grief. It was a tricky thing, twisting and worming it’s way into everyday life. Sometimes in the least expected places, and at most inconvenient times. She’d read somewhere that grief was the continuation of love, and she had no doubt that Harry had loved his parents. They had obviously loved him and showered him with it if the letter was anything to go by.

She needed another look at the list that Lily Potter had given them, perhaps there was more to glean from it, in terms of calming the boy down, or comforting him. They’d have to teach him, and learning how to deal with grief wasn’t an easy task, even as an adult.

“Ba!”

She looked down to see him making grabby hands towards the remaining fruit that was on the plate. She smirked in triumph, they’d made some progress at least.

A few hours later she stepped off of Stakar’s ship and onto the docs of a nearby port station. They had left a sleeping Harrison with Marty, seeing as he was the only ‘responsable’ one left on the ship other than Dr. Karr who was busy.

The couple had three objectives, first they were going to get supplies for Harrison. Second they were going to see about starting the adoption process, finding the people to help them was all Stakar’s responsibility. Lastly, setting up therapy sessions for Aleta. Something that she could really skip if they needed to get back in a hurry, but a deal was a deal.

“He bit you?” Stakar asked, surprised.

“I do believe that’s what I said,” Aleta answered.

“And he lived?”

As if she’d harm a child in anger over something as simple as an infantile mistake. Kids did that for a few years, explored things with their mouths trying to figure out if it was food or not. He wouldn’t have remembered that phase with their three very well, seeing as he had been working constantly to keep all five of them fed.

“I do believe you saw him alive before we left.”

“Yeah but-“

“Honestly Stakar, I’ve let you bite me before.” She watched with satisfaction as his face turned red.

“That’s different. Now what’s the plan you’ve come up with?”

“I’m going to the market, hopefully there will still be some places open for me to get what we need. You are going to track down that contact who will help us square the adoption away, legally.”

“And the therapy?” He asked.

“We’ll meet up to do that.” She said, doing her best not to sigh.

“All right, see you back here when you're done.”

She was in luck, most of the sellers were still active seeing as ships came in at all hours and they could make a sale at any time. And here she was, with hard earned units in her pocket, looking to spend them on a small child.

She walked over to an outdoor stall that was filled with a bright and colorful array of fabrics. Letting her eyes gaze over the patterns carefully, if she saw one she liked she would examine it further.

“May I help you, Ma’am?”

“I’m looking for something suitable for a child’s outfit.” Aleta could feel the shock emanating off the woman, Ravagers weren’t known for being the most caring of individuals after all.

“I can always take my business elsewhere-”

“Our baby fabrics are over here Ma’am.”

Most of her interactions went in a similar fashion. A simple threat of going elsewhere to make a purchase was all it took to snap people back into their senses. Ravagers not wanting to do business with you could spell disaster for a business, they weren’t the most reputable lot, but ticking the wrong one off could lead to you getting black listed. Doing business with the wrong person could do the same. No Ravager would do business with a blacklisted business, or planet in one case, individuals could also fall under this category. Most couldn’t tell the difference between a ship cabin boy and the high command officers, but if there was a flame people would err on the side of caution.

She had visited nearly every stall and shop when Stakar found her as she was examining a hard toy, wondering if it would do as a chewable item.

“Marty called, he’s got no idea what to do with Harrison and he’s screaming.”

“Marty or Harrison?” Aleta asked as she handed over the unit stick to pay for the toy she decided would be a good addition to the small collection that she had amassed for the child. Not too many though, she remembered how her children could be easily entranced by a ball of lint or a box. She was hoping that these would be good distractions from his crying though.

“Very funny, Harris is crying,” he said, as he reached out to help her carry her purchases, surprising her. They left quickly and almost flew through the checks before they were space bound.

“Did you find your contact?” She asked, once they were prepping for the jump that would take them back to the ‘Starhawk’.

“No, but I know where he is, now. Oh I did schedule an appointment for you,” he said, choosing to fiddle with some buttons on the control panel rather than look at her.

She started at that, “I thought only the patient was allowed to do that?”

“You never took me off your medical release, and they said that was good enough. Your first appointment is in a few days.”

“You’ve been sitting on that for a while haven’t you?” She said, narrowing her eyes in annoyance.

“Yeah, I didn’t want to say anything just in case something happened. You’re still on mine too, for the same reason.”

She leaned back in her seat and let him piolet the jump. Once they were through and the Starhawk in sight, she couldn’t help but ask the question that she had been avoiding for months.

“Do you think we can do this?”

He gave her a puzzled look before chuckling, “you’re asking that now?”

He’d misunderstood, she could tell by the mirth in his tone. Thinking she was talking about Harrison.

“I mean, do you think there’s anything to salvage between the two of us?”

The radio crackled to life as they got closer and Stakar was distracted by getting into landing formation. Once the all clear came through he focused on that. It was almost as if Aleta hadn’t even asked the question.

For her part, she wasn’t sure. Did she want there to be something there still? Yes. When things were good between them, life was blissful. When things were bad, they were worse than miserable. Of late they seemed to be somewhere in the middle, neither good or bad, just hovering in place. She’d been deflecting when he wanted to talk, or would straight up cause a fight to keep from having to discuss the situation. It was safer to keep things locked up. To not give anyone something to hold over you. Fears, feelings, dreams, any of them could be twisted by an enemy. Harsher and more painful than anything she could dream up.

“I want there to be.”

He said it so quietly she’d almost missed it. Of the two of them he let his emotions run wild, while she kept a tight control on her own. She was the rudder and he had the momentum of the thrusters when they worked together. This though wasn’t him wanting to push forward at full speed, he was quiet, deliberate, hopeful, and unnerving.

She had no reply to his hope, her own desires locked up too tightly for her to unlock it before they were inundated with duties again. So as he pulled back on the handle that cut the power to the thrusters, she laid her hand on top of his, giving a small amount of pressure in the process as they landed.

She didn’t dare look at him as the safety locks engaged. As soon as the ship was settled his hand turned under hers to hold it. Message received.

Nothing was working.

While Harry had been appeased with Aleta’s return for a short while, it hadn’t lasted. The new toys and baby things had also been a temporary relief. He just kept crying.

No amount of back rubbing in a clockwise motion, pacing the room, or even the stupid Paddy dog would sooth him. Lily Potter had obviously underestimated her son’s lung capacity.

Stakar had been pulled away almost immediately by Matinex, as far the Starhawk’s first mate was concerned Harry was her responsibility. He would pay for that assumption.

She was wracking her brain, bringing up painful memories of her children trying to remember something, anything, that she could try to get him to sooth.

She was tired, having paced the cabin for nearly an hour now, and longed to sit in the desk chair.. She’d tried that already. She was now trying to hum a tune to him that she vaguely remembered as being a children's rhyme from her childhood.

_“Hush little Fledgling, don’t say a word,_

_everything’s gonna be alright in the world._

_It may not happen today,_

_But Mama’s gonna fight to make it that way.”_

“Ma, Mama!” He screamed, arching his back as he did so, nearly landing on the floor as a result.

Swearing would be wonderful right about now, but she didn’t want to corrupt the child too much too soon. He might want a normal life one day. Settle down on a nice planet with a normal job, have some kids. Or some such fairy tale that Aleta could only visit on moon lit nights. She was technically a wanted criminal after all.

Her eye caught something on the bookshelf, a book that didn’t have it’s spine aligned with the other tombs on the shelf. Which was very unlike her husband. Neat and orderly, that’s how he liked his things.

Giving into her curiosity she walked over and slid the book out to where she could read the spine. She was surprised to see Arcartian symbols, and even more so to see that it was a book of children’s stories. Fairy tales.

She pulled it off the shelf and then decided that if she had to listen to Harrison cry, then he could listen to her read. She laid him down on the bed then sat down next to him, opening the book as she did.

A memory of Tara, her youngest daughter, curling up on Stakar’s lap as he read to her surged to the front of her mind, causing the pages to become blurry. Small circles appeared on the page before she realized that there were tears running down her face. She closed the book unable to attempt reading.

Everything that had been bottled up came out. Memories, pain, hurt, the agonizing realization of what she’d lost and how she’d lost it. The pain of not being able to sooth the child now in her care. Was she truly incapable of being a mother in any capacity?

She couldn’t hold it back anymore. She let it out, there was no other way to deal with the pain. Unless she wanted to become what she feared most. A true monster.

Not like those in childhood stories, the ones that adults dressed up to hide the reality of the real world monsters. In hopes that perhaps they wouldn’t be blindsided when they did meet one. No one had told her of such things. Though why would a monster give away all his own secrets?

She had no idea how long it was before she was able to collect herself and reclaim her emotions. Locking them up within her mind once more.

She felt something on her hand. Slowly raising her head, she saw that Harrison was looking at her with his big green eyes. Tears still in them, face still snot covered and red. But at least he’d stopped screaming.

He gave a tug at her hands, which were covered by her gauntlets. She’d worn them when she’d left to pick up the supplies for him and hadn’t had time to change them before Marty handed Harrison to her. They were multi functional. They looked fashionable, their gold went well with her hunter green Ravager uniform, and they protected people from her.

She and Stakar had been entered into an experimental program as teenagers, and had been the only success to live through the trials. It had granted them powers and abilities that were useful in a time of war. She could manipulate light particles, mold them in any way she saw fit to make solid objects, including shields and weapons.

Stakar used the same ability as a blast of energy, and the ability to form wings on his back and fly.This was not the extent of what they could do, only the main points.

Harrison seemed very interested in her gauntlets, she couldn’t let him play with them, as they were sharp. The tips of the fingers were made to represent talons after all. Still she slowly pulled one of them off. To her surprise, he completely ignored the gauntlet and grabbed her bare hand instead, staring intently at it.

Maybe it was because the memories she kept locked up were so close to the surface, but she started forming little waves of light around her fingers. Much the same way she had back in the forest on Tera. Just to see what he’d do now.

He let go of her hand and watched the light dance between her fingertips, mouth open, eyes wide.

“Is this what you’ve been wanting?” She asked, quietly.

He didn’t respond, his eyes following the lights movements. Until an idea struck her, slowly she pulled more light particles towards her hand and formed a ball with them. Keeping them solid while still showing the dancing particles. Harrison continued to watch, enraptured with the new form of the lights he’d been watching.

She tossed it and caught it, causing him to giggle in response. A noise he hadn’t made once since she’d found him.

“You like that Fledge?”

This continued until Stakar entered the room, a look of concern on his face, which relaxed when Aleta noticed him.

“Marty, don’t bother engineering, I just found the reason for the power flux. It’s nothing to worry about.” He shut his communicator before the other could reply back.

“You about made the control room die of fright,” he said to her as he approached the bed. She’d forgotten that on the ships if she pulled too fast the power would flux and mimic a surge that would normally signal some type of fatal failure.

“He stopped screaming, he likes to watch the particles dance.”

Stakar smiled, and for a moment, Aleta could see the man he’d been before he’d let the past get a grip on him.

“Dinner is in a few minutes.”

“Ok,” she made the ball smaller until there was nothing left, much to Harrison’s distaste.

“Hey,” Stakar swept the small child up, “why don’t we get your face washed up and then head down for food? Would you like that?”

Harrison looked from Stakar to Aleta with a panicked expression on his face. Then it struck her what part of the problem could be.

“It’s the translator.”

“Hmm,” Stakar looked at her as she took Harrison from him.

“Your translator is scaring him, when we speak to each other we don’t need it because we understand whatever language we’re using. Harrison only knows English.”

“Which you’ve been speaking ever since you stepped onto my ship. The market being the only time you didn’t.” He said, thoughtfully.

“He’s hearing one voice and then the translator, it probably scares him.”

“Hmm, I’ll think on how to fix that. Oh before I forget, Krugarr has gone dark.”

“What? For how long?”

“No idea, the message is three days old which says that he’s a long way out from here. But until he gets back into contact we can’t do anything about getting Harris’ magic checked out.”

She gave a tired sigh, “alright, just give me a few minutes to get me and the Fledgling cleaned up for dinner.”

If he noticed any evidence of her breakdown, he didn’t mention it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think, like it, love it, or is it just boring? Leaving a comment may result in it getting hugged by the author. Or an internet cookie. 
> 
> (Who want's to see Martinex learn a lesson? Maybe not next chapter but soonish)


	4. Three weeks later

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Three weeks into their new arrangement, the Ogord's grapple with the past and present issues of being parents, with a small Harrison Point of view.  
> (Chapter warnings inside)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is a scene in all Italics that can be skipped if you do not want to read a flashback that contains the following: minor character death, child death, cannon typical violence, fire, blood.
> 
> The chapter will still read fine if you want to skip it. Also the story's rating and tags have been changed, as I build up Harris' family I'll be adding tags as they become prevalent. My outline said cute and happy, my writing held shades of darkness, therefore I like to be cautious with my warnings.

Three very long weeks passed. Aleta still had her ship to run too, they were in the middle of talks to dock the ships together. Which would allow for both crews to mingle, at least the female members of Stakar’s crew would be able to board Aleta’s ship, any male that tried to cross over would be met with fierce opposition. They just had to maneuver the two ships into place before engaging the docking collars. There was just one problem, someone would have to take care of Harrison.

Neither Aleta or Stakar trusted any of the pilots to get the docking right, though their pilots were at the top of their game, they hadn’t been shown or trained on how to dock the Starhawk and her sister ship the Falkor. This meant that they would both need to be at the helm of their ships.

“I’ll take him.”

Aleta wanted to list all the reasons why that was a bad idea, starting with the fact that Harrison still wasn’t completely comfortable with Stakar. She couldn’t take him on board the Falkor, her girls were being good sports about all of this, she didn’t want to abuse their generosity.

“How?” she asked.

“I’ll strap him across my chest, just like the old days.”

“Fine but if something goes wrong on your end you don’t get to blame the baby.”

They both looked over at the child who was chewing on one of his toys on the floor. He seemed to settle down more each day, though his nights were filled with screams, tears, and calls for Lily.

“I think we’ll be fine,” Stakar said, giving her a charming smile.

He was sitting at his desk, and she had sprawled out on his bed, or was it their bed now, as they were sharing it again? Details like these shouldn’t be important, but her therapist seemed to think it was. Aleta tapped her wristcom to check the time, she had twenty minutes before her holo appointment. The last two hadn’t gone too well, each ending with her being more angry and aggressive than she’d been before starting the appointment.

“Do you even have a sling?” She asked him, trying not to think about her upcoming appointment.

“Yep, got the tailor to make me one the other day.”

He was grinning at her, as if what he’d done was some sort of genius idea, “come on Harry Harris, we need to go so Aleta can see her doctor.”

He stood up, cautiously moving to pick up the small boy, as if he were a wounded animal. Which made sense in a way. It was still touch and go as to whether or not Harrison would accept the older man or not. He was definitely a mama's boy, or would be one day if he accepted Aleta that way. They’d agreed that it would be best to use their names with Harrison rather than use ‘Mama’ or ‘Daddy’ as that would probably confuse him. Once he got a bit older they might be able to make the change, but that day was not today.

Aleta said nothing as the duo left the room, Harrison making happy gurgling sounds as he tried to form words. She wasn’t looking forward to the next hour.

Stakar watched Harrison explore the office, or what he could reach anyway. He had several toys scattered around on the floor, but was more interested in the knick-knacks that Stakar had holding down papers and books. Small trophies of missions, rare items, and mementos from people long dead.

The little boy babbled on, having his own private conversation about each new discovery, Stakar couldn’t wait until he started saying words. That was when kids got real interesting to him, and a little annoying, but some of the things they could say and get away with were priceless.

He pulled out the package that had arrived a few days ago, it was a bundle of papers that his lawyer contact had sent him. The second set they’d gotten since starting the adoption process, which apparently couldn’t be done with digital documents. But their contact had promised that this was the last set of papers that they would need to fill out, then the process should be complete within a few months.

Thank the stars for the war between the Kree and Xandarian empires. Orphans were being made so fast that Xandar had sped up the adoption process to at least attempt to combat the influx of homeless children. That was better than what the Kree were doing, which alternated between the two extremes of nothing, or conscripting the new orphans into slavery.

He hated war, mostly because he had always seen it as a waste of time and resources, there were exceptions to that in his mind. But rarely did any conflict he’d ever seen or read about fit into those exceptions.

Though Stakar couldn’t say he’d taken the moral high road, not really. He trafficked goods and weapons to most sides in this war. Except the Kree. That was one species that could die out and he wouldn’t even blink. They’d gone from a fascinating culture with intellectual prowess, to a puritanical, speciesist one. They reminded him of the Reavers that had destroyed his homeworld. Who were much the same in mindset, with the exception that they had believed that the offworld was not something to explore or contact. Whereas the Kree saw it as something lesser to be subjugated.

He rubbed his eyes, he didn’t need to be focusing on the past. He focused on the toddler who was trying to open a locked cabinet. Not for the first time was he glad that he kept that one bio locked, he kept his most important documents in there.

“Harris,” the boy looked over at him, “that’s not going to open.”

“Baa!”

He smiled, Aleta had been working with the little boy on his language skills, but all he was really getting were simple sounds. Which she said was normal, even though he wasn’t too sure about that he differed to her as she had more experience with children.

“Baa, mumm?” Harris asked, or seemed to be asking.

“Can you say Stakar?”

“Aaw?”

“St-uh-car,” he tried, slowing his speech down and enunciating his name. Hoping that perhaps he’d get it.

“Awaw?”

“Close enough, I guess.”

“Awwawa,” the little boy said again, his face lighting up as Stakar handed him a small piece of a soft candy that he’d nicked from Marty’s stash. If Aleta knew she’d accuse him of spoiling the boy. But in his mind, you couldn’t spoil the kid too much yet. Not after what had happened to bring him here.

“Bababa!” He said, in hopes of getting more candy. Stakar smiled at him, this kid could easily steal his heart. He stopped just short though, holding himself back, unsure of how to approach the situation. With his own children it had been love at first sight. He couldn’t, and wouldn’t, even say he’d had that with Aleta. She’d kick his butt if he tried.

It didn’t feel right to say that about Harris either. He didn’t understand why. Shouldn’t he be able to do that? That’s what he’d wanted as a child. Yet if his relationship with Aleta had taught him anything, it was that love could come if it was allowed to grow. Perhaps he just needed time.

“Captain?”

Stakar looked up to see Marty standing just inside the office doorway, data pad in hand.

“What is it Martinex?”

“The contact for the job that we sent Alliex on is on the line, he wants to talk about another job.”

“Harris can you say Marty?”

His little face lit up, “Mmmm baa!”

Stakar chuckled, “well then how about you and Marty take a few toys while I make a holo call?”

Out of the corner of his eye he could see Martinex getting ready to rebuff this idea.

“Aleta isn’t available Marty, just set him down in a marginally safe area where he won’t get stepped on, or hurt on anything sharp. He’ll play and do a bit of walking around to look at things. Just keep an eye on him.”

Stakar picked up the little boy, grabbing a couple of toys as he did, before holding the child out to his first mate.

The boy and crystalline man eyed each other, one with panic and dread and the other with curiosity. Harrison in his curiosity tried grabbing Martinexe’s nose.

“Sir, I-”

“Do you want to risk the job?” Stakar asked.

“No sir,” Marinex said, Stakar could tell that he was trying to avoid sighing.

“Don’t worry it’ll be fine.”

Marty woodenly accepted the small child from his Captains hands then the toys. Watching the child as if he were a live bomb the whole time.

The only thing that could make his day worse would be if the Kree started attacking the Starhawk.

Everything had been going so well. After getting saddled with the child so suddenly Martinex had decided to take him to the mess. Where he was sure the small child wouldn’t be able to get into trouble. He’d supplied him with some snacks he thought the boy would like and set him on the floor next to where he was sitting. He’d been enjoying a cup of tea and flipping through a Xanadarian love story, he was well aware that if anyone caught him reading it that he’d never hear the end of it. But even with having to look up every few minutes to make sure that the toddler was still where he’d left him, it was kinda nice. Almost relaxing.

Until a couple of chuckle heads decided that their argument needed to be escalated to a full on fight. He abandoned his book and tea in order to deal with them, a small fight could easily blow out to a brawl, and with Harrison in the immediate vicinity and both of his guardians preoccupied, he’d rather mix flammables together and throw them into the reactor.

Once he’d gotten the fight settled he’d turned around to see, well it was more what he didn’t see. Harrison was not where he’d left him.

“Has anyone seen the Captain’s kid?” He said, in his best commander's voice. You could hear an Orlorni fart two galaxies over, it was so quiet. Martinex had a sickening feeling welling up in his stomach. In the three weeks that he’d been on board, the child hadn’t been out of a responsible adults care once. And if he was being honest, he was more afraid of what would happen to him if either Ogords found out that he’d lost the baby. Marty didn’t even want to think about what would happen if it had managed to be hurt or worse.

“Alright, since it’s your fault that I took my eyes off the kid you all just volunteered to help find him.” He heard the muffled groans that some of them uttered but no one protested beyond that.

“This needs to be done quickly and quietly so that neither Captains find out about it. They’ll be suspicious of even the slightest amount of dirt on his clothes, so treat him like Harcoulian Crystal. Go.”

The crew slowly moved out of the mess hall and into the lager maze of halls that made up the Starhawk. Marty took a deep breath, he needed to alert all of the engine, reactor, maintenance and control rooms. He had no way of knowing how fast or far the kid could be. But he needed to make sure that the kid couldn’t just wander into a dangerous room by accident. He’d seen grown beings do that and end up killed.

As his mind started collecting all the areas that would need to be alerted he couldn’t help but think about the fact that there were areas of the ship that had sheer drops and only a handrail that was maybe a foot above his short stature.

Realizing that he was wasting time by just standing there, he pulled out his communicator and started placing intership calls. Hoping to find the kid before he got hurt.

Harris looked up at the high walls as he waddled around an empty hallway. He had gotten scared when people had started yelling in the food room. He wanted to find the light lady, Aweta, or the man who sometimes looked like Daddy who gave him candy.

The big shiny man was alright, but he didn’t seem to want to pay attention to him, or play with him. Like uca Petety.

Harris clutched his black dog to his chest as he continued to walk, doing his best to not fall over. He was getting tired, and a little hungry.

He heard some strange talking, it was getting louder as he walked, light was coming from a doorway. He stopped in the doorway and looked in. He saw a brightly lit room, it was full of mounds of cloth and half finished clothes.

Harris took a few steps into the room, quietly observing the room, the talking had stopped but he didn’t see anyone. He was really tired now and let out a big yawn. He then spied a mound of cloth that looked like the blankets he slept with, and he trotted over to them. He then reached out and felt them, they were soft, like his Paddy, and he was so tired.

It wasn’t long before he fell asleep curled up on the soft fabric around him as a bit more fabric from a stack above him draped over his sleeping form. Creating a small private tent.  
Blissfully unaware of the chaos that he’d created.

Aleta walked down the hallway towards Stakar’s office, a blue blanket in her hands. She needed something to keep her grounded after that last session. But it was also time for Harrisons nap. Something she intended to join him for.

She was almost to his office when she spotted Marty.

“Martinex,” the man seemed to jump when she called out to him.

“Captain Aleta,” he said, his voice sounding slightly higher than normal, “how was your appointment?”

She smiled sweetly at him, while contemplating if it would be worth the trouble of grinding the man in front of her into dust. The longer she smiled, the more formal Martinex’s features seemed to become.

“You wouldn’t know where Stakar is would you?”

“Oh, ah, he’s in his office. Just got off a call for a job.”

“Ok, talk to you later Marty,” she said, before walking past him. His footsteps thundered down the hall in the opposite direction.

When she entered the office she found her husband staring at the data pad with a grin on his face. But there was no sign of the toddler other than his toys neatly strewn around the room.

“Stakar,” he looked up, “where’s Harrison?”

He chuckled, “he’s in Jorgen’s quarters, our tailor, napping I think as he hasn’t moved in about twenty minutes.”

She was unable to move for a minute, mouth agape at what he’d just said, “What?”

“I had to take a call, handed Harris to Marty and kept an eye on them from the security points. Marty took him to the mess where a fight broke out and Harris took off to explore, or get away from the fight.

“He ended up toddling down some hallways until he found the tailors quarters, made himself a little nest and laid down to sleep. I paged Jorgen to let him know what happened and he’s been watching ever since.”

Aleta was almost positive that smoak was coming out of her ears, she didn’t give her husband the opportunity to answer the question, “I’m going to kill him.”

“Can you stand waiting until after this job I’ve lined up?”

She glared at him.

“Look, even if I hadn’t been monitoring them, I still would have known there was something up when Marty messaged the engine, and reactor rooms to be on the lookout for Harris. Marty is at least taking precautions. Even if he is looking in all the wrong places. For a guy who has little to no experience with kids he’s not doing too badly.”

“He lost Harrison, and you say he’s not doing too badly?”

“At least he didn’t just stand there like a dunce,” Stakar said, referencing the time he’d taken his eyes off Sitia for a second before she’d absconded back to the stall Aleta had been shopping at; twenty feet away and two rows over from where he’d been.

“That’s not the point,” she said, pinching the bridge of her nose, “the point is that you handed off Harrison instead of watching him yourself then when you knew there was a problem you didn’t go and fix it.You put our child in danger, again.”

She turned on her heel storming out of his office, she missed having doors that you could slam shut. Her footsteps echoed loudly on the steel floors, she was just shure that anyone within a mile of her could hear them. Yet Martinex didn’t move when she entered the hall that would take her to Harrison.

“Captain.”

“Shove it,” she replied, before pushing past him to enter Jorgen’s quarters. A few steps into the room she was greeted by a sound she hardly ever had aimed at her.

“Shhhh.”

Aleta whipped her head towards the sound, only to see Jorgen, his eyes wider than the plates in the mess hall. Granted his eyes were naturally that size which made it hard for her to tell if he was actually afraid of her at this moment.

“Sorry Ma’am, they’ve been trying to come in here an’ wake up the little guy.”

“Thank you Jorgen,” she said, “where is he?”

A long scaly finger pointed out an odd looking lump among the stacks of fabric, Aleta stelthally went over to it and peered through the opening that was there. Harrison was sound asleep, curled up around his dog. Before she could stop herself, she felt a full blown grin spread across her face as a warm feeling spread through her chest. He was precious.

“Would you be alright with him staying here until he wakes up?”

Jorgen shrugged, picking up his previously abandoned work, “how long does he sleep?”

“Only about a couple hours right now.”

He nodded, “are you staying too Ma’am?”

She hadn’t thought about that. She had intended on taking a nap with the toddler, but seeing as he was already in the sweet embrace of sleep she didn’t want to wake him. She had learned that lesson the hard way years ago, don’t wake a sleeping baby if you value your sanity.

“If you don’t mind I think I will.”

Jorgen gave a snort, “never separate a young one from its mother, unless you want to lose a limb.”

Aleta bit back a chuckle, sitting down next to the sleeping toddler. With nothing more than her thoughts for company. The memory that she’d tried to not discuss with her therapist flooding forward as if it were happening in real time. The impact of almost losing Harrison started to wear down her defences as she watched him sleep.

_“I trusted you!” Aleta screamed at her father, tears running down her face as she watched the blood soak his clothes. Stakar in his blind rage had dealt the older man a fatal wound, one that would take a short time to kill him, unlike the deaths that had been dealt to their children._

_“Sweet naive girl,” he rasped out, coughing up blood for his effort, “Trust is for children. You are a weapon, my finest work.” He was cut off from speaking as another blood filled cough wracked his failing body._

_“They were my finest work, and you destroyed them.”_

_“No. I kept them from ruining you.”_

_His breath was coming in gasps now. Aleta couldn’t bear to watch any more, as much as she loathed the man she couldn’t watch him die. But as she turned away she heard herself asking one more question._

_“You never loved me, did you?”_

_A choked laugh came in response, “love is a construct. It makes you weak.”_

_“No,” she whispered, tears flowing unchecked down her face. She didn’t bother saying anything else to the man who was gone moments later. The monster who had sired her, who had toyed with her body to make her into ‘his greatest achievement’. Not a daughter, not a son. Just a cold unfeeling thing. A weapon to use, and discard when he felt she had reached the end of her usefulness. A weapon._

_As she walked away she could feel Stakar’s presence at the back of her mind, still raging at the dead. Grieving for their children by blindly lashing out. He would need time to process before she could unfuse with him, not trusting him to be on his own. Then she would grieve._

_Her feet perhaps unconsciously lead her back to their house. It was no longer home. It butted up against a forest that their children had spent hours playing in. The very forest she and Stakar had been in only a few hours before, stealing away some precious alone time within the trees. Shamelessly flirting with each other as young teens did. Stakar even joked about convincing her to have a fourth child._

_Somehow those moments seemed years away now. The safety and happiness, a distant memory as she gazed at the house now a smoldering shell of what it once was. Nothing seemed to be salvageable from the wreckage._

_A new question that she wished she’d asked now bubbled up. Tears coming faster now as she stared at the ash piles that had a glittery sheen to them, a sign that her children had been within the structure as it was consumed._

_They’d been too late. Even fused together, there was no way they could breach the burning walls without sharing the same fate. She’d still tried, Stakar held her back, pointing out her father’s presence instead. They hadn’t seen him since they’d left their homeworld to build a new life. To see him basking in the glow of the flames had allowed her to yield to Stakar’s influence and let him take control and fuse with her._

_She walked through what remained of the one story house. The soles of her boots were proofed for hotter temperatures than the embers were at. Looking for anything. Any reminder of her children, even a slight chance that they might still be alive._

_She spent hours picking through the wreckage, finding bits and pieces that she would keep and cherish for the rest of the item's existence. Then she found the chest. Stakar had hidden it in his office, it was for if they ever needed to leave at a moment's notice. Copies of her designs, legal papers, medical books, things that the children would have needed were within it, all safe and sealed inside._

_There was nothing else there. Everything was either in the chest or in her satchel that hung around her shoulders, she knew she would never part with it. Sitia had made it for her, she’d never let go of her daughter._

_She crept out of the building as darkness fell, not looking back, she couldn’t look back. Her steely resolve in place, with not a crack in her veneer. A farce, but one she could controle. A weapon._

_She would head to the docks where their ship, a proto type for the M ship class, was kept and take them away from this place. When Stakar was calm she would let him go so they could figure out a plan. But until then it was just better to slip away into the blackness of space and let it consume her_.

Aleta still wasn’t speaking to Martinex.

It troubled the Puluvian, not to mention Stakar himself. It had been an honest mistake and Harris had been found safe and sound. Stakar had the situation under control, even if he hadn’t been hands on with the control. He didn’t understand what she was so worked up about. If he’d really been lost then he would understand.

At least she’d still trusted him to keep Harris while they docked the ships together.

Stakar looked down at the toddler who was now strapped facing his chest, and not happy about it. He was fussing, trying to squirm out of the harness. It wasn’t too tight, that had been Aleta’s concern about it when Harris started fussing. He wasn’t hungry as he was refusing the snacks that Stakar gave him by throwing them at Marinex. Which was funny seeing small pieces of dried fruit stuck on the other man’s uniform, Stakar had to admit.

He’d been changed before they put him into the harness, and he’d had a good nap beforehand as well. Stakar was of the opinion that Harris was just cranky, and thought that his charge could just get over it.

He walked onto the bridge with minutes to spare, the navigators having already lined up the Starhawk for docking. While Aleta would be doing most of the hard work of getting the Falkor into the docking collar, he would have to hold his position until all the safety features were engaged. This was easier said than done with all the obstacles that were constantly floating around them. If something came within a perilous striking distance there would only be seconds to maneuver the ships out of harm's way.

Stakar had complete faith in Aleta’s abilities as a pilot and as a designer, even if they hadn’t done this maneuver in a few decades. He was confident they could pull it off and complete the docking with few problems.

He approached the pilot’s chair, nodding to the salutes that were given by the crew that he hadn’t seen yet today. He was alright with the bridge crew being lax with certain formalities when they were working. Salutes could go by the wayside in favor of navigation, shield monitoring, weapons handling, and a score of other little jobs that the men and women that made this ship fly. As long as they saluted at least once per shift he wouldn’t fuss about it to Marty.

Marty’s own station was close to Stakar’s, he was multitasking as the Captain came up on him.

“Luta is running the coms sir,” he said, as Stakar sat down, much to Harris’s dismay. The toddler gave a screech of protest.

“Harris don’t do that please,” Stakar said, “well you’re not the only one in trouble Marty.”

“Yes, but Captain Aleta is still speaking to you.”

“Not like she has much choice,” Stakar flashed his first mate a grin.

The sound of a digital voice reached his ears, “Luta may be running coms but I can still hear you, darling.”

“Baa!” Harris said, recognizing Aleta’s voice, trying to twist out of his harness to see where she was.

“We’re in position,” Stakar said, choosing to ignore Aleta’s veiled threat. If she was in a mood then he’d leave her to sort it out. He had to hold his ship steady, and keep Harris from causing too much trouble.

Normally when he got this way Stakar would set him down to get out his energy, or hand him off to Aleta since the small boy seemed to prefer her. But the bridge was not a place he could safely do that. The sooner the toddler learned to handle the harness the better. That way he wouldn’t be restricted to only a few rooms and could go with his parents when they needed him to.

Sadly Harrison didn’t seem to want to sit still, he’d made a game out of trying to detach Stakar’s nose from his face. Which blocked his view of the controles. He said nothing, just moved the boy’s hands away. With Aleta able to hear everything he didn’t want to risk getting into deeper trouble by saying something in a cross tone to the boy. Or have a command said to the toddler taken as one that should be followed by the crew.

He was focused on the lineups of a couple of large space rocks, remnants from an old planet that had been decimated by the Kree about a century back, trying to see if they were going to become a direct hit or not. Reading the output on the screens his vision was blocked and a sharp pain went through his nose as Harris dug his tiny fingernails into the skin.

“Harrison, let go of my nose!”

When that didn’t work he pulled the hand away, a bit rougher than he’d like to admit, before scowling down into pools of green. Pools that had overflowed and were now running down the boy’s cheeks. He hadn’t started vocally crying yet, though his face was screwing up to do so.

“Don’t cry, please don’t cry buddy,” he said, softly trying to keep from being heard over the coms. The last thing Aleta would need was to be distracted by Harrison crying. He also wanted to keep his image as a tough Captain, though that might already be shot after he’d taken in Youndu.

“Look,” Stakar said, unfastening the harness that secured the little boy to his chest. He quickly turned him around so that he had a view out of the view window that was used to see the space in front of the ship. “See that, isn’t it pretty?”

It truly was. They were passing a minor system, one large moon with a dozen or so planets orbiting it. Stars seemed brighter in this part of the galaxy as very few planets were around to block them from view. Again thanks to the Kree.

Harris was suitably distracted by the sight. His little mouth, which had been primed for a cry, now opened in awe of the space around him. Eyes widening, just as Stakar liked to think his own expression had been when he’d seen space so close for the first time. He never got tired of that look. Wonder and astonishment, mixed with awe.

“See that moon over there? There are some small planets orbiting it, a rarity, one day I’ll take you to explore them. Do you think that’ll be fun?”

“Mooy!”

Stakar chuckled in relief and amusement. The small toddler went quiet, eyes darting around hands reaching out as if to see if he could touch what he was beholding.

“Docking complete,” Luta said, her voice as loud as a bomb in the nearly silent bridge.

Stakar breathed a sigh of relief, “good job everyone. Matinex take the controles.”

“Yes, sir.”

Stakar stood up, balancing Harris in his arms as he did, “come on buddy, let’s go find ‘Leta.”

“Lawa,” he parroted back, a question in his eyes.

“Yep, then we can go have some dinner.”

Stakar was grinning all the way down to the docking bridge that now connected the two mother ships, not even Harris’s fussiness about leaving the view port could dampen it. The boy was hooked, he could see it in his eyes. Without a shadow of a doubt he’d make a fine Ravager one day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Questions? Comments? Want an internet cookie of your choice? Leave a comment below! 
> 
> Marty has not learned a lesson, Aleta likes to let people stew before she extracts her revenge. There's going to be a time skip forward in the next chapter. So stay tuned. :)


	5. Bonding

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been six months since Harris' arrival let's check in on them.

Her eyes opened slowly as something roused her from sleep. She didn’t want to wake up, her body not having gotten its full recharge after dealing with Harris’ nightmares only hours before. 

“Up! Up Weewa.” 

At least this time he wasn’t screaming, but he was playing with her hair something she’d come to learn that she didn’t like anyone doing. Unless it was Stakar, but even then only in a few instances. 

“Shh. Harris don’t wake Aleta, she was still up when I went to sleep.” 

This was true. But only in part. She had gone to sleep at her normal time, Stakar having the graveyard shift on the bridge, had left her to deal with the night terror that had woken their son. He kept having them always screaming for Lily when he woke. She was growing concerned about them, she could count on one hand how many nights he slept all the way through without having one. She didn’t know what to do about them though, other than sooth the boy while he screamed. 

“‘Tay Sar,” Harris said. 

His words were coming along slowly, he could now say around ten words consistently. His favorite being “No”. He’d recently added “Sar” or star which was what he called Stakar, and “Weewa”, or Leta which is what he called her. He also said cookie, and “Mawwy” better known as Marty. Who was now very fond of their youngest shipmate, even if his babysitting was still being supervised after an incident involving pudding. 

“Weewaa,” Harris said, in a not so quiet whisper directly in her ear. 

“Harrison,” she muttered, sleep still firmly gripping her voice, “go get Stakar.” 

“Sar,” he shouted, not in her ear, thank the stars, “Weewaaa up!” 

“Harrison,” Stakar said, sighing in disapproval.

Reluctantly Aleta opened her eyes and sat up, jostling the almost two year old off her back and into the middle of the bed in the process. Which he protested with his favorite word. 

“No.” 

Sitting up she could see that Stakar was seated at his desk, a few data pads deep into what would be the accounts for the year. He had two months to go before the big Ravager meet up where he’d go over all ninety-nine accounts and address each of them with their respective captains. 

While everyone looked forward to the meet up, no one liked dealing with the accounts, except Mainframe who kept theirs in impeccable condition. Stakar had taken to just asking them how their year had gone rather than attempt to go through one more account. So technically he only did ninety- eight accounts. It was still a lot of work. 

“Are you combining our accounts,” she asked, yawning, “or keeping them separate?” 

“Separate. There’s gonna come a time where we’ll need to split off again, and I do not want to try and separate the books. That was a nightmare.” 

Aleta nodded, she remembered that. They couldn’t get through a single sentence without fighting at that point. Thankfully Charlie had been Stakar’s first mate and had taken over. If such a disaster happened again, well Marty was just as capable of handling the books as Stakar. The older man just liked to have his finger on the pulse of their organization, though. 

“Any trouble?” 

“Not so far, though I’m going to have to give Emberett the same talk I’ve been giving him since he became a captain, it's something new every year. Accounting doesn’t need to be this hard.” 

“How’s Udonta doing?” 

She was concerned about their newest addition to the admiralty. She didn’t doubt his abilities, they’d trained him too well for him to fall on his face. But this was his first year on his own, with no oversight. Which worried her, it wasn’t every captain who got to be a flame captain. They all had reputations that preceded them which was normally a good thing. 

The exception was, they now knew, if one of them wanted to adopt a little orphan boy, then extra units and paperwork had to be given to get the Nova corps to sign the documents legalizing the adoption. Which was still pending, stupid Nova corps and their high road morals. 

“I think someone else is doing his books.” 

Aleta laughed, “what makes you say that.” 

“They’re neat and orderly.” 

Aleta stood up, preventing Harrison from falling off the bed by sweeping him up onto her hip in the process, “You can ask him in two months, that’s soon enough.” 

She gave Harris a once over, “he’s outgrown his clothes again.” 

“Dow?” the little boy said. Aleta put him on the floor allowing him to run off to his ‘room’, the closet that was serving the position temporarily until they could dock in a port to do renovations to give the boy his own room, which would be in two months. 

“So-” Stakar gave her a non caring glance, his hair tousled and unkempt for the first time in a few weeks. He tended to play with it when he was stressed, which going over ninety-eight sets of accounting books would do. No one liked to look at their friends and allies as if they were lying and stealing from you, but blind trust would get you robbed. 

“So, when you need a break we need to go get him some new clothes.” 

“You know, I think you just like children because it gives you an excuse to go shopping.” 

“I need excuses now?” 

A smile appeared on his face as he shook his head, turning back to his work. 

Little footsteps came signaling Harris coming back into the room. In his hands he gripped a collection of his clothes and his little jacket, which to Aleta’s disappointment was blue. He had one of each of their colors and they let him pick which he wanted to wear on any given day. 

“Weewaa! Go?” He held out his collection to her, asking for help with getting dressed for the day. 

“Sure Fledge, I’m coming.” 

“Fedge is me,” he giggled before shooting into the bathroom. 

She felt her eyebrows raise, she couldn't tell if that was a new phrase or just a lucky formation of words on the almost two year old's part. 

“One day,” Stakar said, gravely, “my translator is going to stop working, on that day I won’t notice a difference in what he says.” 

“That’s because you’re learning at the same pace he is.” Aleta said approaching the bathroom, her lips forming a small smile when she heard a soft chuckle from behind her. 

She had forgotten that Doctor Karr had wanted to see Harris for a checkup, only a page from medical had her walking the long hallway to the medbay. Toddler in tow. 

He didn’t want to be held as much any more, his little adventure a few months before had given him the confidence to want down to explore. They still picked him up to carry him, it was a huge ship and there were many dangerous places for a toddler to get into, not to mention people who wouldn't appreciate his presence. When it was safe, though, they did let him down to walk on his own, as long as he held a hand. 

She had asked Stakar to join them, but he had declined. Like he had every other time she’d taken Harris to see Doctor Karr. Even though he’d changed the lights he still avoided the area. Granted she’d asked him to do other things with her and Harris and he’d declined that too. 

She couldn’t understand him. He took care of Harris when she had her appointments, or if she needed to get something done on the Falcor. But in the last couple of months he’d started treating him as if he were someone else’ child. She wasn’t sure if it was the delay of the adoption or if there was something deeper going on. He was stalling getting closer to Harris, which left her with the majority of the work. 

She planned on bringing it up during their next session together, no doubt they’d need a mediator for that conversation. 

“Come on Harris, we’re almost there,” she said, trying to encourage the little boy to walk faster. He seemed to have picked up Stakar’s distaste for the med bay, his steps getting slower as they got closer. 

“Sar?” 

Aleta sighed, “he’s gotta fly the ship with Marty.” 

The raven haired boy puzzled out what she’d said without reply as they reached the doors to the medbay. 

“Wan Sar,” he said, looking up at her with big eyes. As if she had the power to summon the man into their presence. Before she could come up with a response of her own Doctor Karr appeared from behind one of the partitions. 

“There’s my favorite patient, are you ready to get checked out? I promise there’ll be no shots today.” 

“No.” 

Ah, that would explain his reluctance to come down, he’d had shots the last time they’d been down to medical. Harrison had been inconsolable, until Stakar had taken him to one of the viewing platforms to show him the stars. This had also been the day that Harris had added “Sar” to his vocabulary. 

It would also explain why the almost two year old was trying to climb her like a ladder. She bent down to pick him up carefully placing him on her hip. 

“Well,” Karr chuckled, “I guess I’m going to have to earn his trust back.” 

“I think so, can he sit on my lap for the exam?” 

He nodded, “I think that’ll work.” 

Within the safety of Aleta’s arms Harris was amiable towards the doctor, but ever watchful of where and what the doctor was doing. Much like his surrogate mother, fool him once but never again. 

When he was finished Zhane offered up a treat for the boy, who gleefully took it. Distracting him while the adults talked. 

“He’s right on track, maybe a bit advanced in his speech though. Is he sleeping through the night yet?” 

Aleta gave a snort, “no, he keeps having nightmares. He’s usually awake for about an hour before I can get him back down to sleep, sometimes longer.” 

“Hmm, that’s not good,” he turned to an instrument that was blinking, “have you been able to get a hold of Captain Krugarr? He might have some insight.” 

“I agree, but unless he doesn’t show up at the meeting in two months he’s simply unreachable. Doesn’t mean we aren’t trying.” 

Karr nodded, “I can’t rule out it being a magic thing until he weighs in.” 

Aleta picked up the toddler who was starting to yawn, “rest assured I want it ruled out as soon as possible. That way if it is magic related someone else can handle it.” 

Zhane laughed as she left the room. Harris seemed to be all talked out and was resting his head on her shoulder, she rubbed his back lovingly. She was starting to admit it now, no longer shoving the feeling that welled up in her gut when he did such things. She was falling in love with him, her little boy, soon to be her legal son. 

“Alright Fledge, let’s go have some lunch with Luta.” 

“Mmmm,” He nodded against her shoulder as he cooed. Aleta knew to savor this moment, because as soon as they reached the mess he’d be all energy again, winding himself up so he could eat his lunch before finally running out of steam while she read to him before his nap. 

Sweet little moments, fleeting as they were, had been building her connection to the boy. To the point that she was afraid that Stakar was being too distant with the toddler and wouldn’t be able to build a strong bond. 

She swallowed as they came within range of the mess, feeling the minute shift in the boy’s demeanour, she needed to focus on other things right now. It seemed that her husband had other ideas though. He was waiting at the entrance to the mess when they arrived. 

“Would you like to go over to Dansik with me, grab some lunch and do some shopping?” 

Aleta felt the corners of her lips pull up. 

“Go?” Harris asked, lifting his head off her shoulder to look at Stakar, “Sar!” 

Stakar smiled and took the boy that was leaning for him so that he wouldn’t topple out of Aleta’s arms. 

“Well that’s one, how about it Leta?” 

“Weewaa go?” 

Harris looked at her with excitement in his eyes. It was almost as if they didn’t take him off the ship. They had, but only in controlled environments where they were sure he wouldn’t be hurt or kidnapped. 

“Let me check with Luta, then if there’s nothing big I’ll go.” 

She passed the pair to enter the mess, Harris clapping his hands as she did. Allowing a smirk to form on her face, this could work out for them a little bonding time, just the three of them. 

It was towards the end of their trip when Aleta watched Stakar slow down his pronunciation in an attempt to teach Harrison the word for cookie in Xandarian. They’d decided to start teaching him words in Xandarian, but only the ones that he already knew in English. Which weren’t a lot, Aleta was working with him and she had a feeling that he understood more than he verbalised at this point. 

“Close enough,” Stakar said, before ordering a cooking for each of them. They were perfectly warm and tasted almost as good as the rare sweets that she had received in her childhood. They’d yet to find anything that could match the sweets from their homeworld, or a recipe book. Which considering all the other junk they’d found on their homeworld was surprising. 

Aleta chuckled as they walked back to the docks, cookies and purchases in tow. 

“What’s so funny?” Stakar asked, having noticed her laughter. She had to bite the inside of her lip when Harris took the opportunity to take a bite of the man’s unfinished cookie. 

“We’re fitting together nicely, the three of us.” 

He smiled then looked at his cookie, “Harris did you eat my cookie?” 

“No,” he said, giggling. As Aleta did her best not to roll her eyes at the toddler's feeble attempt to lie. As if the trail of cookie crumbs wouldn’t give him away. But it was still precious. 

“That’s not nice to take other people's food,” he said, gently scolding the toddler. 

“No,” Harris said, seriously shaking his head slowly, as if to show he understood everything Stakar had just said. He didn’t Aleta knew, the little food theif. 

“Ask me next time.” 

Aleta was trying not to burst out laughing. They’d decided that Harris should at least have the option of leaving and making an honest living in the galaxy, if he wanted. In order to do that, he had to be taught morals. Ones that Ravagers didn’t always abide by, like honesty, manners, and not taking other people's things. Though, not stealing from other Ravagers was always off the table. 

They were almost to Stakar’s M Ship when a small tinkling sound attracted her attention. Turning her head towards the sound, she could see that Harris had somehow procured a red and gold bell and was waving it around. Stakar stopped. 

“Where did you get that?” 

Harris didn’t answer, instead choosing to wave the bell in his caregivers' face instead. 

“I think someone just committed their first felony,” Stakar said, a wry grin on his face, “we’re gonna turn you into a true Ogord yet.” 

Aleta stiffened, “as soon as the adoption papers are signed he is one.” 

He scowled at her, “I know that, and you know I didn’t mean- Charlie-27 what side of a dark moon have you been hiding on?” 

A large man who stood taller than anyone else in their crew was approaching them, his yellow ravager coat swaying around him as he did. He saluted when he stopped in front of them. 

“Just got out of Kittchune territory, I hear you’ve been busy?” 

Harrison took his opportunity to get the rest of Stakar’s cookie, “Peees?” 

“What? Uh sure,” he handed the rest of the cookie to the toddler, “Charlie, this is Harrison our newest Ogord.” 

Aleta wanted to roll her eyes, but didn’t, their son had already picked up one too many of her habits, “he’s almost two, I found him on Terra abandoned.” 

“Well then I’d say he’s found himself a fine pair of parents.” Charlie said, smiling at the boy who was now watching him very closely while nibbling on his pilfered goods. 

“Hello Harrison.” 

Harrison looked up at the big man, his eyes wide, quickly looking back to Stakar who was giving him an encouraging smile, “It’s ok, he’s a friend like Marty.”

“No. No, Mawwy Pwetty.” Harris said, confusion maring his little face. 

Charlie for his part started laughing, his jovial expression startled Harris, “I agree little one, Martinex is prettier than me.” 

“Sorry Charlie,” Aleta said, when the larger man had stopped laughing, “he’s still learning words, and how to not be shy.” 

He nodded, “that’s understandable, too often I see little ones be too friendly and then get hurt because of it. I’d rather them act this way.” 

“So,” Stakar said, attempting to steer the conversation to a more pleasant topic, “what brings you to this side of the galaxy?” 

Charlie straightened up a bit, “I’ve got talks with the Collector, but my crew needed a little down time before we got there.” 

“I see, you wouldn’t happen to want any back up would you?” 

Aleta stiffened, Tibian was one of her least favorite beings in the galaxy, and Stakar knew why. Tibian had helped her father find them after they’d escaped him. All in exchange for some little trinket for his collection. Five lives ruined all for some small piece of paper he’d deemed ‘collectable’.

If any Ravager was being honest, they would tell you that the Collector was a means to an end. They only took his jobs for three reasons, one the pay was good, two they needed a quick low risk job, or three they were down on their luck and needed to make some units before the accounting period was up. 

Charlie was probably somewhere in the first two categories as he never had problems making units. He was one of the more loveable Captains in the fleet, ruthless, but a bit of a kind heart. People who wouldn’t work with the other captains because of their reputation would work with him. 

“He said it would be fine for me to bring along any help I needed. Are you sure you want to?” 

Charlie’s eyes darted to Harris again, the temperature seemed to drop, and something sharp clawing at Aleta’s gut. The same way it did before anything went seriously wrong. She hadn’t gotten any premonitions in years, and if the sensations had any chance of being wrong. There was always the fact that Charlie wouldn’t ask Stakar if he was sure unless there was some danger to the job. 

Granted there wasn’t much in the galaxy that could actually kill them any more, decapitation, large explosions, and insinaration being the exceptions. Coupled with their elongated life spans and whatever staying power they had from the experiments done in their youth, got them as close to immortality as one could. But they had a child to think about now. 

“Maybe we should sit this one out Stakar,” Aleta said, noticing that Harrison was starting to get bored of the conversation. He was starting to wiggle within Stakar’s grasp, it might be time to take him home for a nap, which had been delayed in favor of their shopping trip. 

“Leta-” 

“I won’t be putting out until tomorrow,” Charlie cut in, “might need to stick around in port longer if I don’t have enough M ships. You can let me know if you still want to go then.” 

“Weewaa, wan Weewaa Sar!” Harris reached for her from Stakar’s arms. 

She took him to keep him from falling out of the older man’s arms. Addressing Charlie in the same movement, “we’ll let you know Charlie, if you’ll excuse me someone needs their nap.” 

“No, no ‘ap,” Harris said, pouting as he did. 

“Fine, I’ll take a nap and you can fly the ship with Marty.” 

The little boy stared at her as if trying to comprehend what she’d said, seeing as she’d used one of his least favorite words. 

“No ‘ap?” 

“If you can stay awake no nap,” she had a feeling that Stakar was looking at her like she’d grown another head. She knew though, that there was no way the boy would be able to stay awake for more than an hour longer without some type of drugs. And that was not going to happen. 

“No nap, Weewa.” Harris said, conceding to her wishes with a nap. 

She started walking in the direction of Stakar’s M ship, he could stay and catch up with Charlie if he liked, Harris could nap just as well in an M ship as the Starhawk. 

They didn’t talk about the job until after dinner. Harrison had taken a nap, but with all the excitement of another Ravager crew mingling with the Falcor and Starhawk’s he was exhausted by the time Aleta put him into his jammies with little M ships on them and asleep before she’d wished him sweet dreams. 

“I want in on the job,” Stakar said as she shut the door to their son’s bedroom. 

“I know.” 

“It’ll boost moral, and the units aren’t bad-” 

“Stakar, I could care less what jobs you and your crew do,” she said, making a point as to which crew would be taking the job for good measure. “Just don’t end up dead.” 

Aleta started to remove her clothing, hoping that the action would distract him. 

He sighed,“‘Leta-” 

“Don’t,” she said, growling at him, “since day one you’ve been hot and cold with your responsibility to Harris. I’ve been on deck for not only my crew, but for a child who’s probably been traumatized in ways we can’t imagine.” 

“What do you mean?” He asked, his voice showing his growing irritation. 

“He wakes up screaming almost every night, I wasn’t still awake when you got in this morning. I was just heading back to bed after resettling him, that’s not normal. You would have known that if you’d bothered to go to his medical appointment. He even asked for you when we were on our way there.” 

Stakar looked like he wanted to interrupt, but she kept going. 

“I go without sleep, work five times as hard as I did before, While you traipse around as if nothing has changed, deciding to interact with us whenever you like.”

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed Aleta, but I too have a ship to run, an entire fleet in fact. I’m providing for him, what more do you want from me?” He said, his voice dangerously low. 

“You’re not bonding with him and I can’t do it for you. I need your help, and Harris needs your commitment if this is going to work. But if you won’t take the responsibility of doing so then maybe I should just keep doing this on my own.” 

She had the top of her jumpsuit off, clad only in her black undershirt and her leather pants, as she let out emotions she’d been hoarding for the last three months. She’d wanted to do this months ago but had been convinced that she was overreacting. But she needed to cool off before this blew up into a screaming match between them. 

“I’m taking a shower,” she said, before storming off, she didn’t want to deal with his stupid face right now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Charlie-27 has made his debut. :D 
> 
> Let me know what your favorite cookie is in the comments. 
> 
> Also, I have no Beta if you notice a glaring error that is not related to cannon but to grammar, spelling, ect. please let me know.


	6. Therapy and Toddlers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Harris says 'sars' in this chapter, he's saying Stars m'k? He does not want the similarly spelled illness.

Martinex watched Harrison from the corner of his eye. He was in the officer’s lounge with the toddler while his parents were in their meeting. He toddled around the room playing with his toys. Anything he could get hurt on had been removed from the room or put up high where he couldn’t reach it.

Marty was putting together some reports that would make his life so much easier if he got them done before he went back on shift.

He’d noticed that both Ogord captains were tense this morning but had not mentioned it as that would have gotten him involved. And that was not a place the Pulvian wanted to be. If they were fighting then he did not want to come between them. Anyone who did so tended to end up dead.

“Mawwie,” Martinex looked down to see holding up his ball, he took the ball and gave it a light toss for the toddler to chase. This happened a few more times before Marty noticed that the ball was just appearing in his hand, rather than the toddler just handing it to him. He simply tossed the ball again and watched from the corner of his eye to see what would happen.

To his astonishment after Harris picked up the ball, in his giggles the ball disappeared only for it to reappear in Marty’s hand. Confused as to how this could have happened he looked over at Harrison.

“Harris, did you make the ball disappear?”

“Bahah Mawwie!” He said, clapping his hands before reaching for the ball as if to say ‘throw it again’.

“How?” Martinex looked down at the ball in his hand, wondering if maybe there was some type of tech in the ball that he hadn’t noticed before. But there didn’t appear to be.

“Mawwie,” Harris said, now standing in front of him reaching his hand out for the ball.

He was about to give the boy the ball when he noticed an odd smell coming from the toddler’s person.

“Mawwie, baah,” Harris said, looking more frustrated with the older man.

“Harris, I think you pooped didn’t you?” Martinex asked, a bit of fear popping into his gut. He’d never changed the boy before, and if his nose was telling him anything it was that he had definitely pooped.

“Poooop Mawwie,” Harris said, looking a little tired.

“Uh,” Marty didn’t know what to do with him. His species didn’t have this issue to his knowledge. He’d been raised in a Nova refugee colony with no access to anyone who’d lived on Pluto before him.

“Alright Harris, we’re gonna go find someone to help us.” Martinex picked the boy up and carefully held him away from his person so that the excrement wouldn’t create a bigger mess.

Stakar sat with his arms crossed, not looking at Aleta. They were sitting in his office waiting for their therapist to join them on a call. He was still angry about last night. He hadn’t been able to defend his actions at all before he’d had to be on the bridge.

Harrison was with Marty for the hour so that they didn’t need to worry about him getting into trouble.

It was all he could do to not start a fight right now. Anger was boiling in his gut, bubbling and rolling over and over. How dare she question if he was committed to their little boy. He had a ship to run, he had to provide for his crew and his family. Just as she did. It wasn’t his fault that the boy preferred her over him. The call came through and Aleta’s hand hit the answer button.

Stan’s face popped up on the screen, bland smile on his face as per usual.

“Hello Captain’s, how are you both today?”

“We’ve got a fight brewing,” Aleta said before Stakar could get his mouth open. He shot her an exasperated look, one that had become like an old friend to him over the years of knowing her.

“I see,” his face didn’t change, “Do you both want to talk about it?”

“It’s nothing big,” Stakar said, trying to get controle.

“I would like to talk about it,” Aleta said, not looking at Stakar, “I feel that if I don’t I will become violent.”

“Really? You’re going to stoop to threats, Aleta.” Stakar asked.

She glared at him, “it's a promise, darling. Not a threat.”

“Well it's up to you both, but you have to agree on talking about it.”

“I don’t think it needs to be talked about in this type of setting,” Stakar said.

“What setting? The fact that we are on the cusp of having a blow out fight, or that you aren’t in control of the narrative to try and down play the situation. Like you do every week.”

“I do not.”

“You do, just like you tried to do last night too.”

“You walked away from me.”

“So that I didn’t say anything I’d regret or wake up Harrison.”

“It seems to me,” Stan interjected, “that you might need to talk about this. What is the argument about Stakar?”

He took a breath hopefully he could get this turned around, “Aleta seems to think that I’m not spending enough time with her and Harrison.”

Stan nodded, “I see. Aleta would you say that’s an accurate description of your argument?”

She snorted, “No.”

“Would you care to elaborate that answer?” Stan asked.

“I’ve been concerned that Stakar isn’t spending enough time bonding with our son. He isn’t even willing to refer to him as son. If I ask him to do something like come to a doctor’s appointment he says something about having a ship to run. He also leaves me with the brunt of the caring which annoys me to no end. But I’m more concerned with him being hot and cold with Harris.”

“I see,” he tilted his head a bit, “Stakar how do you feel about what Aleta has said?”

“She’s entitled to her opinion.” He said with a shrug.

“That’s not an answer, I would like you to state your defense against what she’s said.”

“My defence? Other than having an entire ship, no, an entire fleet to run I don’t have anything to really say. I’m trying my best, with all the progress we’ve made here I would have thought she’d understand that.”

Stakar shot her an annoyed look, which was his only way of taking shots at her at the moment.

“Are you afraid of doctors Stakar?”

“What? No.”

“Then what was the particular reason you didn’t accompany your wife and son to his medical appointment?”

“I told you I have a ship to run. I’m in the middle of balancing the accounts, and I can call Karr up whenever I want to get the info.”

“Aleta,” He turned to ask her a question now, “do you have to balance accounts for your ship?”

“I do, I haven’t gotten to them yet as I’ve been chasing after a toddler most days.”

“You don’t have someone to look after him while you do your work?”

“No.”

Aleta looked a bit guilty to Stakar. They had talked about having a crewmember watch over Harrison when they both needed to be busy. But nothing had come of it yet.

“Maybe you should consider taking someone on to do that, it could help you both and keep you from feeling as if only one of you is doing all the work.”

Stakar could tell that Aleta didn’t like that answer, even as a little voice in his head told him that he could also delegate more to Martinex, or to the second mate. The latter definitely didn’t have enough to do on most days if the nap Stakar had caught him on the other day, when he should have been working. He didn’t like the idea though.

“Stakar you look like you’re deep in thought?”

“I was just thinking that I might need to delegate some duties to others,” he said slowly.

“Why?”

“Well, I found my second mate taking a nap in the middle of his shift, he obviously doesn’t have enough to do.”

“Would that allow for you to spend more time bonding with Harrison?”

“I already spend time bonding with him.”

“How much time would you say you spend bonding with him?”

“What?”

“Give me an estimate of how many hours a day you spend with Harrison, awake.”

“Somewhere around thirty-seven hours,” Stakar said, easily.

“Lie,” Aleta said, pursing her lips.

As a part of their joint sessions, they had a deal that if one of them felt the other was lying or, deflecting the truth erroneously they only had to say the one word. It was meant to keep them in check. Or to work out the frustration that they both felt when the other started lying. It was a better alternative to shooting or throwing things at each other.

“Aleta how many hours a week would you say you spend with Harrison? Awake also.”

“One hundred and twenty-two, give or take the hour he’s awake after a nightmare.”

“He has nightmares?”

“Near constant since we got him,” Aleta said, hesitantly, “I’ve been working with the doctor to try and work out what is going on. But he’s only saying about ten words right now.”

“Tell me about these nightmares?”

“Well they always start out waking me up with him screaming, he’s never awake when it starts and I have to wake him. That’s when he starts calling for his Mother, Lily.”

She swallowed, and Stakar could see the pain she was trying to mask. It was a tell that went back to their childhood, she couldn’t hide it from him. Her pain was always visible to him. A bit of guilt crept into his gut at that.

“How do you feel about that Aleta?”

“Honestly? Like shit. I’m providing almost everything for him, his care, love, food, safety, and he wants a dead woman.”

Stakar blinked. When had she started laying things bare in such a manor? She normally reserved that for dealing with people she was about to systematically dismember, for justifiable reasons. Like rape, or trafficking sentiant beings. The sort of things that Ravagers didn’t do. One because it was against the code, and the other because they were afraid of her dismembering them, slowly.

“Have you been calling yourself his Mother?”

She hesitated, “no.”

“Maybe if you started doing that he’d make the switch? Just a thought.”

He turned his head back to Stakar, “what do you think about what Aleta has said?”

What did he think? That she was allowing herself to be hurt, she should allow the boy to deal with the nightmares. Nothing good came from coddling children. Even as he thought it, that little voice made itself known again, wondering if he had ever cried for his own mother.

All he knew was that a scouting party had found him in the middle of nowhere clad in only a diaper nearly sunburned to death. They’d thought him dead orgianly and had only collected him to give him proper burial rights. But Could he have been torn from his mother? Had she been killed in front of him and he just did not remember it? He’d never know the true answer as the only people who could tell him were long dead.

He realized that he’d been silent for too long, “it’s disturbing, but children have to learn to self soothe.”

“What?” Aleta said, looking at him dead on, “whenever John cried in the night at this age you would bolt out of bed. There were times I was convinced he did it on purpose just to have special time with you. Now you say that Harris just needs to ‘learn’,” she turned back to the therapist, “This is what I’m concerned about! He keeps treating Harris as if he’s not his child.”

“Stakar, would you like to respond to that?”

He didn’t, but did he have a choice?

“Well he’s not, legally speaking that is. Not yet. But it’s hard to feel things like that towards someone who’s not interested in you. I mean he prefers Aleta more than me.”

“Could that be because she spends more time with him?”

“I guess, but when he first arrived he would only cry when I was around, so I kept my distance. He likes to look at the stars though, we do that together.”

“Was there a reason for the crying that you know of?”

“We think it was the translator, other than that he was a bit skittish around Stakar.” Aleta interjected.

“Ah, yes I’ve seen that before, with children who are adopted by parents who aren’t exactly the same species. But Stakar, why would the legality of his guardianship hold any weight in how you feel about Harrison?”

Stakar didn’t have a good reply. He didn’t want to tell the truth but anything else would be spotted as a lie. Perhaps a bit of the truth would help him?

“I see myself in him, I wasn’t adopted, I got a surname and a foster parent but not a family. Not until I married Aleta.”

“Is that the only reason?”

“Why wouldn’t it be?”

Stan seemed to look right through him for a moment before speaking, “because when we started these sessions you said that you were concerned that you would be dishonoring your former children’s memory. Would this have any affect on how you're dealing with Harrison?”

He took a deep breath, he was caught.

“You want me to do what?” Doctor Karr asked, incredulously. He was looking at Martinex as if he’d grown a second head. They’d ended up in the med bay as going to Aleta and Stakar was out of the question unless there was blood or vomit. He had figured that Doctor Karr would be able to help him out since he worked with Harris so much.

“I don’t know how to change a baby,” Marty said in his own defence, “Aleta was always nearby if something like this happened.”

“Martinex, he’s simply dirtied his pants, not set the control room on fire. Now get out of my med bay I have real work to do.” Karr gave him a look that said ‘if you value your life don’t come back unless you’re hurt.’

Marty looked at the toddler in his arms slowly becoming more alarmed with each passing second. He had no idea what to do, Harris obviously was unhappy that his pants were dirty. And from the smell he also knew that this wasn’t going to be a pleasant duty.

With a sigh he hightailed it back to the officers lounge where the bag with Harris’ things still sat. he apologized once they were back inside the room, hoping to minimize his coming embarrassment.

“Harris, I’m sorry but I have no idea what I’m doing so, just bare with me.”

“Mawwie, poo!” Harris said, his little face scrunched up with displeasure.

“I know, I know, ok now where are those patches,” he quickly looked around trying to find the emergency air patches. Upon finding one he tapped it into place before pulling out the diapers and what he assumed were cleaning clothes for Harris.

“Ok, you can do this Marty,” He said, trying to encourage himself.

He got off the blue jacket only to find that the whole of Harris’ back was coated in a foul smelling yellow secretion. He gagged. He’d cleaned up after adults that had vomited all over themselves, heck he’d cleaned up his own vomit. This smelled worse than anything he’d ever experienced. He couldn’t figure out why the patch wasn’t working to filter out the smell. He had to get him out of the onesie, without making a bigger mess, he looked in the boy’s eyes.

“How can one little kid make this much stink,” he said, his words coming in gasps as he endeavored to get the onsie off. Sadly he was unsuccessful in keeping the mess contained as some of it got onto Harris’ hairline. Then again, the boy had the secretion almost all the way up his back in the first place.

Gritting his teeth and taking shallow breaths, Marty ended up using almost the whole container of wipes cleaning Harris up. Laying him back down in a poop free area of the floor he started looking through the bag to find a diaper. Something he probably should have done before stripping the toddler.

Just as he pulled out the sought after diaper he heard a trickling sound. Now this sound could be almost anything. His first instinct was to look up at the ceiling to see if anything was leaking. When he saw nothing he ended up looking down to see that Harris was peeing on his leg.

Marty took a deep breath in an attempt to keep from yelling, managing to grit out, “I’m gonna remember this when you bring home your first girl Harrison,” He smiled down at the toddler, “and I’m going to tell her all about this.”

Harrison grinned at him, “oh yeah you’re all smiles now but you won’t be when that day comes little man.”

Marty then pulled out a cloth that was dry and mopped up a bit of the pee before placing the diaper onto the boy, backwards. He quickly realised his mistake and turned it to the right side. He then extracted the extra onesie from the bag, when he turned back Harris had rolled onto his stomach and stuck his hand under the couch trying to reach something.

“Hey, come back here. I’ve got to get you dressed you little… little hoodlum.”

“Mawwie,” Harris said, as if he were surprised to see the man. Big eyes looking all innocent at him, a smear of something brown on his lower lip. Someone must have left a bit of food under the couch. Marty sighed hopping that he wouldn’t be sick from whatever he’d just eaten.

“You are gonna owe me big time kid,” he said, wiping the brown from his lip before hoisting him up to put the new outfit on him.

“Baww,” Harris said, looking up at Martinex.

“Sure, but just know I’m keeping a list.”

Harris giggled, prompting Marty to sigh again, “you and Yondue are gonna get along great once you start talking more.”

Harris made a small sound, almost if he approved of what Marty had just said. Marty started hoping that one of the Ogord’s would show up sooner rather than later.

Aleta wanted to rage at her husband, he had been trying to derail the conversation yet again. Thankfully Stan wasn’t standing for any of his malarky but still, it was infuriating. It didn’t help that he’d been silent for the last few minutes pondering her statements about his being distant with Harris.

“‘Leta, I just don’t think he needs me as much as he needs you.” Stakar said, at long last, exasperation lacing his voice.

“What?” She asked shocked, they’d been going round for forty-five minutes now and this was the first he’d brought this up.

Stakar laughed, but it was mirthless and cold, “none of our children have ever cried for me. Ever. Not even when they were dying. You’re upset because Harris calls for Lily. Imagine for a minute that you were the one he cried at. For the first three months he couldn’t decide if he wanted to cry or not when he saw me. He doesn’t want me Leta.”

“Yes he does,” she said, softly, “he was scared of his medical appointment yesterday, do you know who he asked for? You. He wanted his ‘Sar’, not me.”

She stopped, the pain that his new revelation was too much for her, far too close to the surface. She either needed to lock it up, or let it out. Neither option was appealing at the moment. Thankfully they were at the end of the appointment.

“I think,” Stan said, after the silence had permeated the room, “you should try listening to each other’s concerns. Not right this very minute, you’re both raw. But later when you’ve both had time to cool off, sit down and discuss what’s going on. At the very least you need to be on the same page when it comes to Harrison. He needs you both in equal measure and for different reasons.”

He stopped, “I’ll see you both next week, please don’t kill each other during that time.”

Aleta sat back in her chair, allowing her body to collapse in on itself. Tired of holding up a facade of being alright when she wasn’t.

“You didn’t need to go for my heart,” she said, surprising herself.

“Not my intention, I was simply trying to get my point across.”

She looked over at him to see that he was in a similar position as she was. A heap in his chair with his fingers squeezing the bridge of his nose.

“Headache?”

He nodded, not bothering to verbally answer. He’d started getting horrible headaches after the experiments in their youth, some could lay him out for a week if they got bad enough. Nothing other than rest, darkness, and moderate noise would help to ease it. To her knowledge though he hadn’t had any in a few years.

“How bad?”

“It only just started, I won’t know for a few hours,” he made a noise out his nose, “looks like you got your way though. I won’t be going with Charlie on the off chance that this is one of those headaches.”

She didn’t respond, letting her silence speak for her. Stan was right, her nerves were too raw to deal with continuing the conversation they’d been having. But she felt he did need an explanation, one that she didn’t feel comfortable giving in front of Stan.

“I had a feeling something was wrong with the job, and wanted you to stop and think before jumping in with both feet.”

“A premonition?” Stakar asked, his hand lowering, eyes squinting in pain.

He might not know if the headache was a big one or not, but all the signs that Aleta had memorized over the years were lighting up with huge neon lights.

“Maybe, I haven’t had any in a few decades though.”

“We haven’t been this close in decades.”

“No. We haven’t,” She said, agreeing.

Silence came between them again, Aleta was grateful for it. She needed it to put away her thoughts and feelings. To don her work persona again.

“We really do need to find someone to look after Harris when we can’t,” she said.

“Can it wait until after my headache?” Stakar said.

Before Aleta answered they were interrupted by cries that were becoming louder with each passing second. The door opened and in came a disheveled looking Martinex and a red faced sobbing toddler in his arms. His uniform had a liquidy trail of something gross looking down the front of it.

“I’m sorry, but I think something’s wrong. He got all red and started crying, then he threw up on me.”

Aleta was on her feet crossing the room and holding Harris before she could register she’d acted. Cuddling him under her chin.

“Do you not feel good,” she asked, cooing at him, he felt too warm, “let’s go see Doctor Karr he might have something for you.”

“Wait, I’m coming too,” Stakar said, “Marty you’ve got command for a bit, I’ve got a headache coming on.”

Stakar walked down with them, wincing everytime Harris started crying. Aleta was just thankful that she would have a second set of hands to calm the boy down.

“Martinex I told you to handle it yourself,” Karr said, walking out from behind a partition. Only to rush over when he saw the state the trio was in.

“What happened?” He asked.

“Marty brought him to us, said he threw up, got red, and started crying,” Stakar said, quickly.

Karr looked concerned and motioned them over to a clear bed. He began pulling out instruments to check over Harris. As he did his lips pursed together, and when Harris tried being sick again he grabbed a bag to keep it from going everywhere.

Aleta felt like her eyes were going to fail with how blurry they were. She knew though that if she tried to clear them that they’d start running down her face. Her heart hurt with every cry that came from him.

“Allergies?” Karr said, suddenly, “he might be allergic to something. Has he had any new foods recently?”

“I...I don’t think so,” Aleta looked at Stakar.

“He had a cookie yesterday while we were off ship, that was new.”

“You would have seen this last night if it were that,” Karr stood up quickly exiting the small room, “keep thinking, I’m getting a blocker hopefully it’ll do the trick.”

Aleta wracked her brain for anything that could be causing this. There had been nothing new in his breakfast. They hadn’t introduced any new snacks that he would have had with Marty. What could it be? What? She felt like she was failing again. That she couldn’t think of anything that could be making him sick.

Karr came back and without any ceremony he rolled up the leg of Harris’ onesie before jabbing him with the syringe. Harris cried in pain but settled down as Aleta rocked him back and forth rubbing his back.

“Mama?”

Her heart nearly wound up in her mouth at his cry. Had he just called her Mama?

“Yes Fledge?” She said, trying to speak past the thickness that had nothing to do with the liquid that was now running down her face.

“Mama,” he said, again snuggling into her, “oww.”

“I know, I know,” She said, rubbing his back as his cries turned to small whimpers.

They sat there for a while, allowing Karr to do his work trying to figure out what had caused the reaction. They’d been there long enough for Aleta’s tears to have dried on her face, before a very disgruntled doctor spoke.

“I have no idea how he could have come into contact with that.”

“With what?” Stakar asked.

“Frexxen, it’s a chemical for commercial use as a pesticide in the Nova districts. We haven’t been within spitting distance of any of this in at least a year.” Karr explained while staring at the screen.

“I thought you said he was having an allergic reaction?”

“He was, but the toxin from the chemical is still in his bloodstream, he just happens to be allergic to it. Still doesn’t explain how he could have gotten a hold of any.”

There was a silence for a few minutes with only the mechanical beeps of the machines and Harris’ small wipers as Aleta rocked him back and forth.

“Could, could it be in orlorni poison?” Stakar asked, breaking the silence.

“What?” Karr said, almost whipping his head away from the read out from his computer.

“We just put out new orlorni traps set out last week. Could he have found some and eaten it by mistake?”

Karr turned back to the computer as Aleta did her best imitation of a statue. Much to Harris’s displeasure, he’d been enjoying his back rub and had almost been asleep.

“Frexxen is commonly found in orloni poison,” Karr said after a few moments, “it can also take up to three days for a being to show symptoms of having ingesting the substance.”

“So anywhere in the last three days,” Aleta said, quietly. She looked down at Harris who was drifting off to sleep.

“It's more likely he got into it within the last hour since he had an allergic reaction to it first,” Karr rubbed his face as if trying to clear his mind, “I want to keep him here for a while, to run a detox cycle to make sure that the poison is out of him. It can cause brain damage if not properly removed.”

Aleta nodded and moved to lay him down on the bed she was sitting on. She watched as the medical staff hooked up her son to all the monitors and pumps. He looked so tiny in the bed that was sized for an adult. Arms wrapped around her shoulders pulling her up against Stakar’s chest and under his chin.

“I’ll stay with him,” he whispered, “you go get stuff done.”

“He needs me.”

“Yes but he’s asleep right now. He’ll need you more when he wakes up,” Stakar said, “besides I’m about ready to drop I don’t think I’ll be able to make it back to the cabin. Go scare a new recruit or something.”

She gave a dry huff, “am I a joke to you?”

“No, you are very intimidating and the recurtes need to be hazed a bit. You love hazing my recruits, it’ll cheer you up.”

“It’s childish considering,” she stopped, unable to finish the statement she opted to motion to their son laying on his hospital bed.

“Stan calls it self care I think. Taking time out of a stressful situation to do something for yourself. Please Aleta, even if it’s just a nap.”

A sigh left her lips, “to think we were just at each other’s throats almost an hour ago.”

“Hmm well when the chips are down we’ve always been each other’s backup. I like to think this shows how far we’ve come that we’re able to put our personal problems aside for Harris.”

Aleta shrugged, but she could hear the pain in his voice. If he wanted to stay with Harris then maybe she should let him. Who knows maybe it’ll be a bonding experience for them.

“Allright, but I’ll be back soon.”

They let him lay down with Harris so long as he didn’t disturb the wires and tubes. He watched the little boy’s chest rise and fall through slitted eyes. Even with the lights turned down it was almost unbearable to keep them open.

He wouldn’t lie, he’d been scared they were going to lose him. He’d only thought of the poison because he’d spotted one of the traps in the corner of the room. All three of his older children had liked to get into things that were new, and chew them at this age. It was one of the reasons he’d quit smoking, the butts were toxic and tiny hands would get into them if he wasn’t careful with them.

He didn’t know when he’d drifted off to sleep but he was woken by whimpers that were quickly getting louder in volume.

“Sir,” he turned to see one of the orderlies, “we’ve paged Captain Aleta she’s on her way, if you could keep him from pulling out the tubes?”

Stakar got the message and after what felt like an eternity he heaved himself upright. His head was pounding.

“Harris, come on buddy, wake up.”

Waking him up only resulted in more pain for Stakar’s head as the toddler in question started screaming.

“Mama! Mama!”

“She’s coming, Harris, she’s coming.”

Stakar did his best to sooth the boy by rubbing his back, “you’re ok, I know it’s scary but it was just a dream. Dreams can’t hurt you.”

“Mama,” Harris sniffled, a snot bubble forming in his nose.

“She’s coming buddy, they’ve padged her, it takes a little bit sometimes.”

“Sars? Wan sars?”

This confused him, Harrison called him ‘Sar’, but he was right there holding him and rubbing his back.

“I’m right here Fledge,” he said, softly.

“No, wan sars.”

Loud boots could be heard as Aleta rounded the corner into the small room.

“Look Harris, there’s Mama,” he turned the boy carefully so that the wires didn’t pull out.

“Mama, Patty,” Harris made grabby hands for the stuffed dog.

Aleta handed the toy over and sat down on the bed, trying to figure out how to take him without disturbing anything. Once she figured it out she moved to take him from Stakar.

“No, wan Da.”

Aleta froze, not moving for a long moment as she held him, “what?”

“Da,” Harris said again, trying to squirm back to the man in question.

Stakar gave a weak smile, “me?”

“Da,” Harris said, almost desperately reaching for him. His heart felt like it would burst at the sight of Harris, no, of his son reaching for him.

“Fledge, Da’s not feeling good, but if you lie down he will too.” Aleta said, quickly.

Stakar getting the message, laid down on the bed with enough room for Harris to snuggle up next to him. Harris looked between them before lying down next to his ‘Da’ snuggling his dog in between them. Stakar smiled blinking back tears that were most certainly not from the immense pain in his head. One day he would look back and point to this day being the first day he realized that he’d been falling in love with his son without even realizing it.

“Stakar,” Aleta said, in a whisper as he drifted off to sleep with his toddler snuggled into his chest, “the adoption documents came through today. He’s ours.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No it's not a Stan Lee cameo. Stan was just the first name that popped up in my head and I went with it. Only when editing did I realize it might be considered as such. 
> 
> Let me know if you liked it, or what you think, or if you've got any questions. Gonna be another time jump in the next chapter.


	7. Harris Meets the Ravagers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's two months later

Aleta kept a tight grip on Harris’ hand as they watched another M ship come in for a landing. If she let go the boy would go running off and probably end up hurt as a result of trying to get a closer look at the ship. He was utterly fascinated with them.

The planet they were on for the annual meeting belonged to an old friend who had passed on several decades before, leaving it to Stakar and Aleta. They had turned it into a safe haven for the Ravagers and people who they happened upon who needed to stay elsewhere but couldn’t become Ravagers themselves. Or in the case of a handful of individuals, was a retirement spot for former crew and Captains who had served long and well over the years.

All the captains would be put up in a mansion that Stakar had designed as not only a place to stay but as a meeting place, as there was a huge amphitheatre-like area beneath the main house.

This ship that had just landed belonged to Captain Mainframe, who was an android. The ship was a patchwork of metals, ranging from bronze, to platinum, to gold, Mainframe used whatever was handiest and space worthy when doing patch work for their ship. Which normally would grate on Aleta’s nerves.

Harris watched as some of the crew started to disembark from the ship, when they got closer he started waving. Which had the effect of surprising every single one of the crew. Some waved back with a smile, before remembering to salute Aleta.

She’d been enjoying the varied reactions from the other Ravager factions, it varied from shock to intrigue. Aleta’s mear presence was an added surprise that tempered whatever response would have come from the factions. She had her girls promise her to keep their ears out for reactions of the others while they were there. She was just sure that there would be some sort of hilarity.

Harris for his part was behaving well, he was dressed in a mini ravager uniform that was a cross between his parents' faction colors. Martinex had suggested it when Stakar and Aleta started arguing about what color Harris should wear to the big meet up. The color had an added bonus of not belonging to any other faction, and he looked adorable.

Harris didn’t care about any of that, so long as he got to watch the ships come in. Marty had discovered Harris’ love of watching the ships land while he’d been babysitting and had to deal with something in the hangar. The almost two year old could sit for hours watching M ships take off and land.

According to the math that she had been doing Harris would be turning two this week. A large milestone for someone who was wanted dead by insane wizards in her opinion. She and Stakar had been talking about how and if they should celebrate it on the day or not, since it would be right in the middle of the numerous meetings they’d be having.

They wanted to do something along the lines of what they’d done for their first three children.  
Which was drastically different from their own upbringing, which only acknowledged that you were one year closer to your trial year at sixteen. Once you reached that age you had to prove you were worthy of becoming an adult. It was grueling and awful but if you wanted to survive you got through it. Aleta didn’t think Stakar would have made it if not for her, and their enhancements.

They had eventually agreed on having a special meal of Harris’ favorite foods, some sweets, and a couple of presents for him to open. They’d invite the people who would be closest to the little boy as he got older to join them, there would be no expectation of gifts from them of course as they’d planned this at the last minute.

At last Mainframe stepped off the ship. They were wearing their light armor body today, and their eyes were lit in gold. Aleta stooped down to pick up Harris, she didn’t know how well he’d react to Mainframe so she wanted to limit the amount of area she’d have to cover should he get spooked.

“Aleta!” Mainframe said, their voice sounding childlike today. They could change their voice to sound however they wanted it to. This childlike one seemed to be a favorite though.

“Mainframe, I see you’ve patched the hull again.”

A chuckle came from the android, “blame the Kree for that,” their eyes seemed to zeroed in on Harris, “who’s this?”

“This is Harris, my son.”

Mainframes' eyes got bigger, and if Aleta wasn’t mistaken their eye color pattern flared out into different color patterns in excitement.

“Oh,” they squealed, “so adorable! And looks just like Stakar.”

Aleta gave a low chuckle, Charlie had also made a comment about how closely Harris resembled them too. Marty had received a smack on the shoulder for muttering “luck of the draw”.

“Harris this is Captain Mainframe, can you say hi?”

Harris at the mention of his name had torn his eyes away from the sky for a moment, now he looked between the new commer and his Mom. Hello was not quite in his vocabulary but he gave a little wave at her request.

“Oh, he’s making my circuits melt Aleta,” Mainframe said.

“He has that tendency, though Marty would tell you he’s a devil in disguise.”

“Mawwie?” Harris asked, looking around for his aforementioned Uncle.

Aleta was certain that if Mainframe was a biological person that they would be swooning right now.

“Are you and Marty good friends?”

Aleta gave a snort, adversaries would be a better way of describing their relationship. At least from Martinex’s end of it. It wasn’t that he didn’t care about Harris, he just got frustrated easily. Harris seemed to think that it was funny to see Martinex frustrated and thus he made a game out of it. Sometimes it was funny, sometimes not, and sometimes someone was covered in weird colored goo.

“No, Mawwie pwitty,” Harris said, surprising Aleta and prompting Mainframe to cock their head to one side. Harris tended to be on the shy side when meeting new people, that he was willing to talk in front of Mainframe showed that he was getting bolder. Aleta felt proud of her Fledgling in that moment for breaking out of his shell a little.

“Well that’s possibly true,” Mainframe said.

“Mama,” Harris turned to Aleta, “Da?”

“We’ll go find him in a minute, Fledge.”

“Oh you’ve given him a cute nickname.”

Aleta blew a bit of hair out of her face. This was going to be a long day if Mainframe kept doing squealing at every little thing Harris did.

“Of course I did Circuits,” Aleta replied, using a nickname that she knew would annoy Mainframe a bit.

“Well I need to meet with our illustrious leader, would you lead the way feathers?”

Aleta laughed at the comeback, and turned to walk down the path that would lead them back to the mansion. Harris gave a mild protest, prompting more coo’s from Mainframe, but yawns interspersed his jabbering. He’d need his nap soon, then Aleta could leave him in Jorgen’s care.

The tailor had volunteered to watch the boy when Stakar and Aleta were busy, much to Martinex’s relief. Aleta still spent a lot of time with Harris as she didn’t feel right about just leaving him in someone else's care. Stan made the comment that could be a response to the trauma of losing her older children, he didn’t tell her it was the wrong response, just that she should work on managing it. Afterall children grow up and make their own paths eventually.

A rumble sounded off over head, Harris jumped and gave a small whine before cuddling closer to her. Abandoning all his protests from before.

“Mama,” he said, clearly frightened.

“It’s just rain, we’ll be inside before it starts.”

Aleta picked up her pace as the smell of ozone increased. On this planet the rain carried the smell in it, an increased amount ment that rain was mere seconds from pouring down. They would be spending the rest of the day in the house if the clouds were anything to go by. She was relieved when she entered the house just as the first drops hit.

Aleta tossed a brightly colored ball down the hallway for Harrison to chase. He’d had his nap, and was adequately distracted so that they wouldn’t have to go out into the rain that was now pouring down outside. There were ships still coming in, but with the turn in the weather it was much more dangerous. All the pilots were experienced in this area of landing, but she’d heard a couple of people already say they wanted to take their rookies out in it. They just had to get permission to do that as the flight paths were already fraught with landing crafts.

Stakar was already meeting with Captains, his policy was, get them in and done so that everyone could move on and enjoy a few days of relaxation. If her guess was right he’d gone through around twenty Captains already. Not including Mainframe. He’d probably get to them sometime tonight.

Harris loved the sound his feet made as he ran around on the marble floor giggling as he ran off after the ball. She gave the ball a good toss again after he’d brought it back to her, and it ended up rolling down the hallway towards the entryway.

Harris took off after it, Aleta gave it a few seconds before following him, while they were among friends there were some people she wouldn’t trust with children at all. Simply because she didn’t think them responsible enough to care for them properly.

The toddler rounded the corner before she did, prompting her to pick up her pace. A clap of thunder was followed by a small shriek. He’d been doing that all afternoon so she wasn’t alarmed. Rounding the corner she came upon an odd sight.

Standing in the doorway was a man of medium height, blue skin tone, with a short red fin crest atop his head. His red Ravager coat was soaked with rain water and dripping all over the floor. He was gaping at the boy who was holding out his multi colored ball to the man. The latter had a shocked and mildly horrified look on his face, he even backed away as Harris tried getting closer, thinking that was the reason the in front of him wasn’t throwing his ball for him.

Aleta was again surprised, Harris normally looked for her or Stakar when a new person entered the room and would run to them. Perhaps it was all the new people and colored coats that was causing him to be so bold. Or it could just be that Yondu Udonta’s skin was almost the same color as Stakar’s coat. The boy was very comfortable with handing his ball to anyone in a blue coat as they would most likely throw it in order to get rid of him. But should they try to pick him up? He’s scream bloody murder.

“What is that?”

“Bawwa,” Harris said, still holding out the ball. Getting close enough to step in the puddle that Yondu’s coat had made.

Aleta had to bite her lip to keep from laughing, the scene was funny and cute all at the same time. She must not have been successful as Yondu found her eyes with his red ones filled with panic.

“What’s that, and why is it here?”

“Well,” Aleta said, drawing out the word, “the ‘that’ in question is my son, he’s holding out his ball for you to throw for him.”

Harris hearing her voice turned and ran back to her holding out the ball for her to throw.

“Mama?”

Aleta gave him a kind smile and took the ball giving it a little toss, Harris dutifully chased after it.

“He’s yours?”

She turned back to the Centarian. The horror was gone but the mild panic was still there. She knew he’d seen children before, and of more than one species at that, so that wasn’t the reason for his behaviour.

“Yes, mine and Stakar’s.”

“Yeah, I can see that. He’s got yer eyes, and his hair.”

A wicked look passed over her face, “don’t tell Stakar that, he’ll launch into an hour long rant about how his hair does not look like that.”

Yondu gave a snort relaxing into the conversation, “I’ve seen his hair without all the junk in it, it looks exactly like the kid’s.”

Harris chose that moment to bolt down another hallway, Aleta sighed and started across the room to follow him.

“We’ll catch up later,” she said just as Stakar emerged from the very hallway Harris had disappeared down, toddler in his arms.

“I thought I heard someone new had arrived,” he grinned at Yondu, “how was your landing?”

“I’d rather be chased by Nova Corps through a volcano, there's too much lightning down here.”

As if to prove his point another roll of thunder punctuated his sentence. Harris jumped in Stakar’s arms and dropped his ball. He tried leaning to show Stakar he wanted down, but the elder just righted him in his arms.

“Have you met my son?” Stakar asked, starting to show off the boy as if he was a new treasure that he’d just acquired.

Aleta wanted to walk over and pluck the little boy from his arms, she had warned him not to try showing off Harris too much. He wouldn’t do well being paraded around and would probably ruin the good streak of behaviour they were getting out of him.

“Oh yes sir, he introduced ‘im self.”

“Da Baww,” Harris said, trying to lean out of his arms again.

“Did you say hi to Yondu?”

“No.”

Aleta wanted to laugh at the expression on Stakar’s face. He was still learning how to understand what their son was saying. He could say a word he knew, but mean something very different.

“Well that wasn’t very nice.”

“He held out his ball thingy,” Yondu said, trying to help Harris keep out of trouble.

Before Stakar could reply Harris went limp in his arms and nearly flipped out of the man’s arms. Only Stakar’s reflexes managed to keep him from falling to the floor.

“Mama, wan Mama,” Harris said, punctuating his words with slaps to Stakar’s chest.

“Fledge don’t hit your Dad, that’ll get you in time out,” Aleta said, as she approached to take the squirming toddler.

“Dow.”

“Are you going to hit?”

In answer to her question Harris decided to hit her in the face. Aleta jerked back her body tensing up, she’d never respond well to being hit. Even with her first three children. After consulting with Stan a bit they’d worked out a way to deal with any bad behaviours from Harris.

“Allright Harrison, we’re going to go to time out now.”

“No!”

Aleta ignored him and got a firm grip on the thrashing toddler. Setting her jaw so that she could manage her emotions as she took him back to his room. He would stay in his crib until he’d settled down and Aleta deemed his time out was over. He hated it. Though she thought he hated not getting his way more.

The protesting screams didn’t start until she got into his room, which was just off of the one she was sharing with Stakar. Waiting for a lul in his thrashing in order to put him down in his crib. After setting him down she made sure that he couldn’t hurt himself before walking out of the room shutting the door behind her.

Once outside she allowed herself to slide down the door until she was sitting on the floor. She hated it when he did this. Full on tantrums were exhausting for her to deal with. Naturally she wanted to give him his heart's desires, but he had to learn to behave, and follow rules. He wouldn’t be able to function in a normal capacity if he didn’t. Nor would he make a good Ravager, as the best of the best had to take orders and follow the code.

Five minutes passed before she had calmed enough to go back into the room. Harris was still crying and throwing a fit, but she was able to sit in the room without losing her cool now and lashing out like she would under different circumstances.

It was another five before Harris calmed down, he had given himself the hiccups from his tantrum, which would have been adorable if his face wasn’t all read from crying. Aleta stood up from her seat and walked over.

“Harris, are you going to hit?”

“No,” he said, stuttering the word out.

“I love you sweety but you can’t hit people,” she said, reaching in to pick him up, “now let’s go fix your face so you can dazzle everyone with your cuteness.”

“Tay.”

She rubbed his back comfortingly, she knew that he’d be ok. She was proven right a few minutes later when he scampered down the hallway towards where Stakar was likely still talking to Yondu.

Aleta slipped down the hall to where she knew Martinex was staying. Harris was down to sleep for the night, he had fallen asleep faster than normal. Which was allowing her to do this now. Making sure that there was no one in the room she unlocked it with the override command and entered the room.

It was neater than Stakar kept things. Which could either work in her favor or not. She started by moving everything a few inches to the left, then she stripped the bed and proceeded to short sheet it. His calcium blocks got put under his pillow, and two of his books were placed in the closet.

Satisfied with her work she listened at the door in case there was anyone in the hall, before sneaking out and back down the way she’d come. Jorgen was watching Harris for now, and would alert her if the toddler woke.

Making her way to the lounge where everyone else was took a while as she stopped and greeted people who she hadn’t seen in a while. Most of them were asking questions about Harris. How had she gotten him, where had he come from, was she still running her ship, how did Stakar take the news, would they all be expected to interact with him, were some of the most common.

She was nearly all talked out by the time she arrived in the lounge. She found the table she wanted to be at almost instantly, the one Stakar, Marty, Mainframe, and Charlie were sitting at. She sat in the open seat next to Stakar and allowed herself to relax for the first time all day.

“That’s Yondu’s chair,” Marty said.

“That would explain the gross drink in front of me,” Aleat said, uncaringly.

“‘Leta,” Stakar said.

“Where is ‘ol blue anyway?”

The others seemed to shift uncomfortably, before Stakar answered her.

“There was a collision, one of his crew’s M ships and Master’s. They’re both working it out.”

“Ouch,” she said, “glad Harris didn’t see that.”

Charlie smiled, “does he like watching the ships fly?”

“The simple answer is yes,” Martinex said, taking a sip of his drink, “the long answer is only the takeoffs and landings.”

Charlie gave a dry chuckle, “you’ll be glad you didn’t join me for the Collector’s job, it was a fool's errand. Not worth more than one faction's time, and I had to negotiate to get the payment he said he’d give me.”

Stakar looked annoyed, but if Aleta had to guess it was more about the fact that Tibian had wasted their time rather than his not being in on the job.

“I might put a light blockade on his jobs for a bit then,” he said, casually.

Aleta melted into her chair simply taking in the atmosphere of the lounge. Friends reconnecting, jobs being brokered, and jokes being passed around. She felt content in the moment for the first time in a while. She didn’t have to worry about Harris, or what was happening on her ship. She could just enjoy herself.

“Has anyone heard from Krugarr?” She asked.

Her question was met with negative shakes of heads around the table. Mainframe’s eyes got dull, “I heard from him just before he went dark, but not since.”

“We’ll just wait and see, If he doesn’t show up by the weekend we’ll put out a search party,” Stakar said firmly. This wasn’t the first time a Captain had gone dark and either missed the meet up or hadn’t been heard from. They could just hold out for the best and keep their darker thoughts at bay.

There was a huge roll of thunder, which could be felt through the building. Aleta tensed ready for the alert from Jorgen that Harris was awake and needed her. The alert didn’t come, but a gasp from Marty and Mainframe did.

Aleta turned and in the doorway backlit by lightning, was a serpentine figure. She was on her feet quickly.

“Krugarr.”

The red Lem looked over at her and inclined his head in recognition as he saluted.

“Get your red tail over here right now, you are in trouble.”

His eyes looked surprised, but he approached the smaller Captain all the same, making no sudden movements and keeping his hands where she could see them.

“Is it just me or did Motherhood make her scarier?” she heard someone whisper.

Krugarr stopped just in front of her and moved his hands around forming a question mark in the air with his magic to ask what was going on. You see he had no mouth and resorted to using pictures and common emoticons in order to communicate, he could use telepathy too but it would tax his energy so he relied on his magic more.

“Dropping off the face of the galaxy? Without checking in at all? I could have used your help with something important but no Krugarr had gone dark without any explanation or estimated time of when he’d be back. What do you have to say for yourself?”

Aleta kept her eyes on the Lem in front of her, just sure that he was forming a response in his mind. She was right as his hands made several quick movements. From the characters he presented Aleta was able to put together what had happened.

“You only went dark for a week but a mass outage of your communications systems made communication impossible.” He nodded before presenting a new set of emoticons.

“Everytime you thought it was fixed it would short out and affect a new system. Krugarr did you pick up a virus in your system?” She asked, wearily.

He gave a sad looking nod. She heard sparks behind her from Mainframe as he presented her with yet another set of text pictures, “it slowed down the ships to the point it took you the last six months to get here? There isn’t any way for this thing to get into other systems is there?”

He quickly nodded his head.

“I can take care of the virus for you Krugarr,” Mainframe piped up from behind Aleta.

Krugarr gave a “thumbs up” emoticon to the android.

“Well come join us and we’ll see about catching you up.”

Once Krugarr was seated he made a picture of a red arrow with a question mark after it, asking where Yondu was. After hearing about the crash he shook his head sadly and asked if anyone was hurt.

“Not that we know of,” Stakar answered, “we’re keeping an eye on the coms just in case.”

Another roll of thunder had the windows shuttering, and within seconds her communicator went off. Looking at the message had Aleta standing up.

“Jorgen?” Stakar asked.

“Yeah.”

“I’ll take him, I’ve been catching up on the gossip all day,” Stakar stood up, “make sure this woman gets a drink guys. I’ll be back in a bit.

Krugar looked confused between them as Stakar left, expressing his confusion once the man had left.

“That,” Aleta said before Mainframe could start gushing about how cute Harris was again, “is the important thing I need your help with.”

The Lem looked interested, so Aleta started to fill him in on the last eight months.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what your favorite part was! 
> 
> Or ask questions, ect. 
> 
> Thank you for reading!


	8. Birthday Magic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's someone's birthday!!

The colors of the bedroom were neutral, just like the rest of the house, daylight streaming through the window as Stakar slipped into the room. A brightly colored ball was in the corner waiting to be played with, and light blue blankets surrounded the prone figure that laid in a crib curled up around a small stuffed black dog.

Stakar watched his son's eyelids flutter. As if they weren’t quite sure they wanted to open yet. If Aleta’s math was right then today was the boy's birthday. He couldn’t wait for the little one to be up and ready for his birthday breakfast.

He and Aleta had invited the other flame captains to the special dinner they’d be having tonight along with Marty and Jorgen. Stakar was just so excited about it all, it had been so long since they’d thrown a proper birthday party. Sometimes they’d have a celebration, like when a new captain was appointed, or when a particularly good job had been pulled off. But birthdays were rarer. Most Ravagers didn’t know their birthdays, or if they did, they didn’t want to celebrate them.

Aleta was a little less excited as she’d been up with Harris in the middle of the night after a nightmare again. It had been a rough one that had Jorgen up to see if there was any way he could help to soothe the boy after Aleta and Stakar had tried. So here he was taking the morning shift to let her get back the hour she’d lost to the nightmare.

Aleta was hopeful that this meeting with Krugarr that they’d be having this morning would clear up some of this. Stakar was hopeful, but for other reasons. He was hopeful that the boy wouldn’t be magical. He didn’t know what to do with magic. If Krugarr was able to help them figure it out then maybe he wouldn’t have to worry about someone coming to try and kill his son again. There had already been one attempt on Harris’ life. Stakar didn’t want there to be another until there was a real reason for it. Like stealing Nova Prime’s most valuable pen or something.

Harris’ finally opened his eyes, “Da?”

“Morning buddy, are you ready to get up?”

“Dup,” he said, letting out a big yawn as he sat up in his bed reaching his arms up for his Dad to lift him out of his bed.

“Do you know what today is Harris?” He asked once the little boy was in his arms.

He shook his head sleepily, “no.”

“It’s your birthday,” he kissed the boy on his cheek, “today you are two.”

“Ooo?”

“Eh close enough,” Stakar said,” now let’s get you all dressed up for today.”

Harris clapped his hands together with a grin as Stakar placed him on his changing table. It was gonna be a great day, he could just feel it.

Krugarr watched as Harrison played with his parents, tossing a ball back and forth between his parents. He had been hesitant to go near Krugarr but he understood that many little children were frightened of his appearance at first. He did seem to be warming up to him though, he’d even offered him his ball, which he’d thrown for him to chase.

He’d been watching for about an hour and nothing notable had happened. Simple child's play was all Krugarr was observing.

Aleta was sure that the little boy she and Stakar had adopted from Tera had magical abilities. Even Martinex was certain that even if the boy wasn’t magic, that he had some type of ‘powers’. But Terrans were not known for having any extraordinary abilities as Martinex had described, a ball disappearing from the boy’s hands and into the older beings hand was curious. It wasn’t indicative of magic, or a power set.

Terrans could possess the ability to harness and use magic, he’d never seen it in someone younger than age five. Even then they could only do a few things and had to wait until they were older to learn more.

Granted the letter from the boy’s birth parents did stand in the boy’s favor. He didn’t know if magic could run in families like that though. He would have to get in touch with Kamar-Taj to find out, there were always secrets that he did not know, or had overlooked. If he somehow did have magic he would have to determine what type and if he would be able to assist him in learning how to harness it.

Stakar and Aleta had a look around them, he’d picked up on it the day before. He hadn’t known the cause of it then, now though it was plain to see. They were content, not putting on a show or faking happiness. Perhaps that’s what was causing them to think that there was something magical about the little boy.

He knew that they were going to want him to be completely sure that he had exhausted all of the avenues that he could when checking for magical inclinations in the boy. He started using telepathy to attempt to see if there were any memories of Harris doing magic, or if there were any of the magical neurons that helped to tell magic what to do.

Trying not to alarm Harris he went in gently. Only for something to recoil at his use of telepathy, it was an odd sensation that almost had Krugarr himself recoiling. That the boy suddenly screwed up his face and whimpered wasn’t a good sign either.

“Harris, what's wrong,” Stakar asked, concerned at the sudden behavior change. Krugarr spared him a look to see that Harris was starting to rub the scarred part of his forehead. He decided that he should try ‘re-entering’ his mind from that point.

Krugarr’s eyes widened as he gently probed the child’s mind further, he was picking up a signature that he’d only come across once before. Granted it was not in a living being at the time which allowed him to eradicate it easily. It was malevolent, a parasite that had latched onto the child with vigor. Krugarr only knew of one way to get rid of it, and he was sure that neither of the elder Ogord’s would like it.

How had a child who could barely speak come across such a menacing thing as a soul fragment? His biological parents being magic users could lend themselves to the reason for a piece of a fragmented soul being attached to him.

But this piece was so small one of them would have had to have been divvying up themselves long before he’d been born, and they would have known the potential risks of placing such a thing into a living being.

He decided to take an even more delicate approach, perhaps he could buy himself and Harris, some time if he could isolate the magical parasite and prevent it from possessing him. Using his hands as a distraction forming pleasant small talk with Aleta, he went to work on the boy’s mind.

A high scream and a flash of green met him as he started to isolate the piece of soul that was embedded in the scar upon the boy’s forehead. He barely managed to keep it from seeping into the boy’s cognition right then, almost as if it were sentient. It did not have the wherewithal to do so though.

He wrapped it up in a thick band of magic, weaving intricate patterns with his mind and hands. Only to find that the soul fragment was counteracting some of his work. Krugarr was shocked to say the least, even if the fragment was weakened it still had some fight in it. But he kept working until he was sure that he’d fenced in the fragment and that it could do no harm. Then he added an extra layer for good measure.

“Krugarr, is everything alright?”

He looked up to see that his friends were staring at him. Harris was currently on the other side of the room with a brightly colored ball, none the wiser to his mental protections. A lot of time must have passed for Aleta to be asking him if he was alright.

Using his hands and symbols he asked, “ _how long_?”

“You’ve just been staring at Harris for about five minutes now, you looked like you were concentrating so we didn’t want to interrupt,” Stakar said.

He nodded, “ _I found something interesting, I’ll need to consult with some people on Terra before airing my discovery. I do think I know why he’s had strange things going on. Or any seemingly ‘magical’ happenings_.”

“Yeah,” Aleta asked, impatiently.

“ _It is most likely that Harrison is not magical, not yet at least. Perhaps when he is older he will be able to harness it just as I have_.”

Her eyes narrowed, “but that’s not what you found?”

“ _I found a peculiar form of magical residue on him, localized in the scar on his forehead. That is what I must research before I say any more, it could be nothing or it could be something, I do not wish to worry you needlessly.”_

“Do you think this finding could be what’s causing him to wake up screaming every night?”

Krugarr stared at her, he hadn’t even considered the detail she’d dropped the other night. That was not good, if the fragment was trying to take over the boy or if it was leaking into him then yes it would do that.

He shrugged doing his best to portray calm, “ _perhaps. I’ve put a magical wall around it for lack of a better word. If there's a difference let me know_.”

A small but necessary lie, but he had to be sure that he was dealing with a split soul fragment before he tried to explain it to the Ogords. Soul fragments and their cousins, the much nastier horrocrux, were immensely complex pieces of magic to understand and perform. Thankfully Aleta accepted this answer and went back to rolling a ball with her son.

Harris caught the ball and then toddled over to Krugarr before offering it to the older being. He took the ball and gave it a gentle toss across the room, Harris took off after it, grinning and jabbering as he did. Krugarr’s translator didn’t even try and figure out what he was saying

“Uh oh,” Stakar said.

Krugarr looked over to him giving him a question mark, only for the emoticon to falter a second, which was odd. Aleta had also glanced over from the toddler back to her fellow captain, letting out a gasp, her eyes going wide. Stakar, on the other hand, burst out laughing.

“I think he might be magic Krugarr,” he barely managed to choke out.

Krugarr glanced down and was horrified to see that his skin, once a beautiful red, was now a bright blue. Thankfully not the same shade as Yondu but still blue. He then caught sight of his reflection in a window and saw that all of him had been turned the same shade of blue.

How though, he’d hemmed in the soul fragment, had it already broken through the containment? He reached out carefully with his mind to see if the defenses had been breached, only to find that they were still in place.

“ _He’s magic_ ,” Krugarr said, with his emoticons, ” _I am unfamiliar with the type he has though_.”

Stakar and Aleta’s faces brightened at that, “can you find out?”

Krugarr gave a nod, “ _I need to make a trip to Kamar-Taj anyway, I will ask them if they know of this type_.”

This satisfied his friends, they gathered up the boy and his ball, “come on Harris we are gonna go look at a surprise. You’re welcome to join us if you want Krugarr,” Aleta said.

Krugarr shook his head, declining the offer, “ _I need to do some research, and try to reverse this,_ ” he gestured to his new coloring.

Aleta tried to cover a chuckle but he still heard her. Bidding his friends goodby Krugarr got to work on tuning himself red again, still wondering how a child so young had managed it.

They were back aboard the Starhawk, walking to the Officer’s quarters, Harris was jabbering at everyone he saw and running around the hall. He was home and this was his element. Aleta smiled as he gave a wave to one of the crewmen who had decided to stay on the ship for the week-long meetings.

When he was comfortable, he was outgoing and sweet. Two traits that she hoped he never lost, even if they did morph and change with age. He started down the hallway that their cabins were on. Stakar hot on his heels, Aleta leaned on the corner and watched as Harris came to a stop.

There was a new door and, just for today, there were brightly colored strips of paper fluttering around it along with a couple of balloons. Harris turned back to his parents and pointed at the new door.

“Dat?”

“It’s a door,” Stakar answered, a huge smile on his face.

“Dat?”

“Door.”

“Mama.”

Aleta pushed off her place on the wall and went to her son, whenever the little boy couldn’t get what he believed was the ‘right’ answer out of Stakar he asked for her. She crouched down next to him and waited.

“Dat?”

“Should we open it and find out?” She asked, watching the wheels of his mind whirl as he thought about what she’d said.

“Tay.”

Aleta looked over at her husband, who looked slightly put out, and gestured for him to lead the way.

Stakar got down at the boy’s level, “look Harris there’s a biolock that’s at your height.”

The boy looked to where his Dad was pointing and saw the pad, “bawab?”

“Put your hand on it, like this,” Stakar demonstrated for him, “see, now you try, just like Daddy.”

Harris looked to Aleta who gave him an encouraging nod, then following Stakar’s example put his hand on the biopad. He jumped back when the door made a whooshing sound as it opened. But squealed with delight when the new room was revealed.

“Come on, let’s take a look inside,” Stakar leaned down and took his little hand in his own.

Aleta leaned against the door jam watching her ‘boys’ explore the room. Trying to remember the last time she’d felt this much joy.

“See this is your bed,” Stakar said, “It’s got your colors on it, and look here’s Patty.”

“Paddy,” Harris squealed before launching himself onto the bed to get his stuffed toy.

The room was pretty bear, it was about the size of a typical officer’s quarters, it had a desk in the room, along with shelves and a trunk that was fused to the floor for his toys that he was slowly collecting. There was also a connecting door that would take him through the closet in Stakar’s cabin and into the main room, as Aleta wasn’t ready to give up that little bit of fast access just yet. One day though, when he was almost grown they’d have it soldered shut again.

“Your guys do good work,” she said at last.

“You doubted?” Stakar said, surprised.

“I doubt anyone who isn’t me when it comes to soldering things into place.”

He gave a dry chuckle, “Well Harris do you like the room?”

“Tay,” the boy said, hugging his stuffed toy to his chest as he explored the contents of the toy chest.

“Should this be your room?”

Harris didn’t answer as he’d found his set of magnetic blocks and was busy pulling them out to play with.

“I think,” Aleta said pushing off the door jam, “that he likes it.”

“Yeah,” Stakar looked a little misty-eyed to her, but she didn’t say anything about it. Filing it away for a future time when such an observation would be useful.

“I don’t know who did it, but stay out of my room,” Martinex said as he entered the room where they were having Harris’ little party. A brightly wrapped box in his hands.

“What are you talkin’ about Sparkles?” Yondu said from his spot on one of the couches. Harris ran up just then and handed him a ball, with a flick of his wrist he sent the toy to the other side of the room, the little boy taking off after it.

“I’m talking to the person who decided to prank my room. I can and will pay them back for it, and don’t call me ‘sparkles’,” Martinex added, shooting the blue Centarian a withering look.

“Only if you can figure out who did it,” Charlie said, coming in behind him, Mainframe hot on his heels. Everyone laughed at that, and Martinex stomped over to a table and placed the package on it.

“Come on guys,” Stakar said as he joined them all, “shape up. I’ve got enough on my hands having to manage a two-year-old.”

“Sorry sir,” came a chorus from around the room.

“Now, why did you bring in a wrapped box Martinex?”

“It's a gift,” he said looking a bit confused, “I thought that was a thing you did for birthdays?”

The ‘you’ was a reference to Stakar and Aleta’s traditions, Stakar sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Yeah, but we weren’t expecting anyone else to have something for him.”

“Oh,” Mainframe said, their voice was along the lines of a mature woman today, “I made him something,” they pulled out a colorfully wrapped box from behind their back.

“I have a few sweets for him,” Charlie said as he chuckled holding out a bag containing the aforementioned contraband.

“No, no, no, you don’t know what he’s like when he’s had that! He climbed into a vent and we couldn’t get him out for three hours,” Martinex said, alarmed at the number of sweets that were in the bag that Charlie had produced.

Stakar chuckled, Harris hadn’t crawled too far into the vent, but it was just far enough that most adults couldn’t reach him. No one had alerted him until after Harris had fallen asleep inside the vent, by that time Jorgen had taken over and called him. It was soon after that the tailor had volunteered to watch the boy.

“In Harris’ defense, he fell asleep before anyone got him out.”

Martinex shot the man another look as Yondu started howling. Krugarr slithered in at that point, he too had a small package in his hands and was still blue. He looked down to see Yondu and raised an eyebrow at him, only for the younger man to be overcome with laughter once more at the Lem’s appearance.

“Honestly I think my two-year-old behaves better than some people in this room,” Aleta said, as the aforementioned two-year-old brought her his ball to toss.

Harris was looking around at all the decorations, “Bawwaba?”

“Well it’s your birthday Fledge, this is how we celebrate,” Aleta answered him.

“Wedge is me.”

Stakar chuckled, as various responses to his phrase went around the room. He noticed when Harris’ eyes landed on Krugarr, a small shriek of joy escaped the toddler when he realized that the Lem was still a bright blue.

“Shall we all sit down to eat?” He said, gathering everyone’s attention.

As they all sat down Yondu tapped his shoulder, he looked a bit embarrassed.

“I uh, I don’t got nothin for ‘im.”

“That’s fine Yondu like I said we weren’t expecting anyone to bring him something. He won’t remember anyway.”

The blue Centarian nodded before grabbing a seat next to Martinex.

The meal proceeded just as most of the meals with the flame captains did, good stories, jokes, and laughter. Though Aleta would glare daggers at anyone who swore in front of Harris. He wasn’t paying any kind of attention at the moment, far too invested in picking up food from his plate.

When it came time for gifts, Aleta looked shocked to see that all but two of the guests had brought him something.

“I thought we said no gifts?”

“It wasn’t an order was it?” Asked Charlie.

“No.”

“Then no harm no foul.”

Stakar noticed that Yondu looked even more embarrassed now, and was sucking his teeth. A habit he’d developed after he’d gotten them capped. His tell, like Aleta’s swallowing when she was hurt.

“I gave him a small fabric toy,” Jorgen said, from his place, “I thought he’d like it, it didn't have anything to do with his birthday.”

“Good grief,” Stakar said, with a chuckle, “you are going to spoil this kid before Aleta and I get a chance to.”

“Dat?” Harris asked, pointing to the pile of presents that had been placed just out of his reach.

“Those are for you to open.”

“Dat?” He asked again.

“Here,” Stakar said, before they had a repeat of earlier, “why don’t you open this.”

He’d chosen a box at random, but if the excited ‘oooh’ from down the table was any indication, he’d picked Mainframe’s gift. After a bit of hesitation, Harris got the message that it was ok to tear the paper, and he did so with gusto.

Within the paper was a medium-sized model of an M Ship that was attached to some levers that when a handle was turned it would ‘land’ and ‘take-off’.

“Ip! Ip!” He squealed in delight, clapping his hands.

“I would have made it sturdier if I’d had a bit more time, but he should be able to use it with supervision if my data banks on children are correct.” Mainframe said.

Aleta examined the toy closely, “how in the worlds did you do this in one day, Main?”

“I have a lot of scrap, I even kept it to one color just for you Aleta.”

His wife chuckled and moved the ship out of the way so another present could be placed in front of Harrison.

“Ip,” Harris said, protesting looking like he was gonna cry.

“Look Harris, here's another box to open,” Stakar said, hoping that a distraction would do the trick he tore some of the paper.

“Dat?”

“From me,” Martinex said, “open it.”

His little eyes darted from Mawwie to the ship, then to the wrapped box in front of him. He finally settled on the box in front of him and started tearing the paper. Once the box was open, he stared at its contents with an open mouth as Aleta pulled it out.

“Look at this Harris, it's a friend for Patty,” she said, her voice more playful.

It was a soft stuffed pink Kylorian dog, the actual animal would whistle instead of bark. Harris cautiously touched the stuffed animal as if to see if it would come to life. When it didn’t do anything more than his ‘Patty’ dog he smiled and grabbed it by one of its twelve tentacles pulling it into a crushing hug.

Next came Charlie’s bag of candy, which Stakar tried in vain to keep Harris from popping one of the sweets into his mouth.

His and Aleta’s gifts were next, a box from each. Stakar had gone practical and gotten him some chewable books for his room, and a few that were a bit advanced for his age. His friends all laughed at the gift as they would have expected nothing less of their bookworm of a boss.

Aleta had gone a different route, hers was a picture of Terra. Harris slapped the glass frame and jabbered at it, just as Stakar or Aleta would do to their communicators.

He chuckled as Aleta said, “we aren’t hiding his heritage from him, but we will be waiting until he’s old enough to understand to tell him. I thought that he’d like a picture of his homeworld for when he gets older.”

Stakar was touched by the amount of thought she’d put into the gift. Granted Harris probably wouldn’t appreciate it for years yet, but the thoughts behind it were amazing. She was giving him something precious like a touchstone.

“There’s also some more blocks for him at the bottom of the box.”

He couldn’t help it, he let out a laugh at her abrupt change in tone. As did everyone else.

“I guess that’s it-” Stakar started to say, as he cleared the paper wrappings away.

“Wait a minute,” Yondu said, his tone taking on a grandstand quality, “it’s my turn I think, and I am gonna dazzle this kid.”

“Babp?”

“Ya heard me, little buddy,” Yondu gave him a grin.

“Just what are you planning to do?” Asked Martinex, who looked a bit concerned.

“Just watch Sparkles.”

Yondu leaned back and after pursing his lips, gave a long whistle. It wasn’t long before a red-lit arrow lazily flew up over the table, doing twists and twirls. Harris’ eyes widened as he watched the arrow buzz around the room, he broke into giggles and clapping, until the last note sent the arrow back to where Yondu kept it harnessed at his hip. He looked very pleased with himself.

“Ip,” Harris said, as the arrow had pulled his attention back in the toy’s direction.

“Yondu, that was nice of you not to kill anyone,” Mainframe said, to Stakar they almost sounded nervous.

“Of course it was because a kid knows talent when he sees it, don’t cha?”

Harris was too distracted by the last box that was on the table that had only been revealed when Stakar had removed the excess paper. After all the other boxes before he now instinctively reached for it.

“Well look at you,” Stakar said smiling, “ok who’s this from?”

Krugarr raised his hand to which Stakar gave a nod, “Ok Harris, this one’s from Captain Krugarr.”

He tore into the paper but he needed some help opening the box itself. Stakar pulled out a sky blue crystal that hung from a silver chain, there were other smaller chains and stones that interconnected forming tassels that hung off the primary chain creating a sort of web.

“Krugarr what’s this?”

The Lem held up his hands and started to explain the meaning behind the talisman Stakar was holding.

“It’s a dream bringer? Very similar to a Terran dream catcher, it just used metals and crystals to filter out the bad dreams and encourage the good ones.”

“Ok that’s my favorite,” Aleta said, giving a tired look down at the now squirming toddler.

“Mama, wan Paddy.”

Aleta chuckled, “we’ll go get him, don’t forget your new dog so we can introduce him.”

She gave the others a smile of thanks before lifting the tired toddler and dog out of his seat and off to his bed.

Stakar smiled, though he’d never remember it, the older man would guess that his son had just had his most amazing birthday.

Aleta fell into bed, she no longer had the strength to stand at this point. She would need to think of some way to thank Krugarr for his dream thingy that he’d gifted to Harris. She didn’t know if it was the reason behind his new streak of no nightmare nights. He’d been sleeping through the night ever since his birthday, allowing for her to get sleep through the night. Four nights of uninterrupted sleep were heaven.

Her reason for being tired was that she had just come from the full ship inspection that had to be done before they left in two days. Tomorrow would be the Ravager meeting with all the ninety-nine captains, the day after they’d all set out for their respective territories to hunt yet again.

She’d been working out how her crew would be working on how to run their operation. She needed to be with Harris, he was too little to just leave with Stakar full time. They were still finding their feet together, she wasn’t ready to put out into deep space for months on end yet.  
Her girls were getting restless though, and she was busy racking her brain for a compromise.

Stakar chose that moment to enter the room, a smile on his face, “Harris is out like a light.”

She nodded but didn’t make eye contact. She was too far gone to look at him right now, his meetings were almost over now and he didn’t have to reconfigure his year's flight paths. She was going to have a headache before this was over and it displeased her.

“Hey, when was the last time you had a hot shower?”

Well, now she had to look at him, “don’t remember.”

“Join me for a hot bath then, I’ll work out the kinks in your neck for you.”

She huffed, “Is that all you’ll work out?”

“I’m hopeful that something can be negotiated?”

She laughed, she couldn't help it, “I’m tired and have a headache coming on, but if you can convince me I’ll consider your negotiations.”

He smiled in a way she was sure he thought was sexy, “I’ll go heat up the water then, join me when you manage to pull yourself into a standing position.”

Once he’d disappeared into the bathroom she let out a long sigh before heaving herself up. The weight of her responsibilities weighed heavy on her, she would be figuring it out though, if she didn’t well they could always take a vote.

She heard the water start to run and she stood up, a glance back at the bed had her thinking about what would probably be happening in it later. She was hopeful that Harris would still be asleep by then and that they wouldn’t be interrupted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit: I forgot the end note lol 
> 
> Let me know what you think! What your favorite part was, if you found an error that needs attention, ect.
> 
> 2nd Edit: A word
> 
> 3rd Edit: a sentence; because why should my grammar checker alert me that there was a copy paste error? Lol


	9. Revelations and Dread part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter we catch up with Krugarr and meet a friend of his over some tea. It's a few months after the events of chapter 8.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A few months after the big Ravager meeting.

Krugarr enjoyed this part of using magic, getting to go places that would only be noticed by some. Kamar-Taj was a place he loved to visit, he always felt a special kind of peace when he was here. The lovely place was quite plain when the humans that came here were introduced to it. But once inside it was quite beautiful, a simple kind of beautiful. He was allowed to portal into the main garden with the use of his sling ring. He had little doubt that someone would be there. To his delight, it was the very person he sought.

The Ancient One, a woman of slight stature and whose hair had long since fallen out, no one knew quite how long ago that was and she wasn’t telling. She was wearing a bright yellow tunic dress like outfit while tending to some of the plants in the garden. Her gentle disposition was nothing more than a harmless mask that allowed people to see what they wanted, belying the power underneath. When she spotted Krugarr she stopped her work and smiled at him.

“Well this is a pleasant surprise Krugarr, we haven’t seen you around in a while.”

“ _But you knew I was coming_?”

“I knew you’d be coming eventually,” she said waving dismissively, “I do know why you’re here though, let’s go inside before it starts to rain.”

She sat down on the floor at her table and poured herself a cup of tea before turning to him once more.

“Now, ask the questions.”

“ _I thought you knew why I was here_ ,” he said, teasingly. She simply gave him a look and took a sip of her tea.

“ _My friends, Stakar and Aleta have adopted a young Terran child. Aleta found him abandoned in the woods by his distant relations and took him in. His birth parents wrote a letter stating that he was magical and the letter is steeped in a magical signature that is foreign to me. Leading me to conclude that they did not learn this magic form from Kamar-Taj. The boy’s abilities are inconsistent at best, but he does have them.”_

“I see, do you know his name?”

 _“Harrison Ogord._ ”

“Before he was adopted,” she clarified.

“ _Harrison James Potter,_ ” he replied, watching as her eyebrows went up in surprise.

“So that’s where he’s gotten off to,” she murmured, “ever since I heard the rumors about him I’ve been wondering around the timeline trying to find his place in everything.”

Krugarr gave her a puzzled emoticon and she continued, “Harrison, is known here as Harry Potter, ‘the boy who lived’.”

Krugarr couldn’t help but feel incredulous about the title, there was no way the boy needed it. If what Krugarr was seeing was correct, the boy would either become one of the best friends to the Ravagers, or he’d become one of their fearsome Captains. But if Stakar found out about it he’d laugh until he was blue in the face, or whatever color Arcartians turned when they ran out of oxygen.

“Did I tell you about the madman I was keeping tabs on in the Wizarding world?” The Ancient One asked, breaking in on his thoughts.

Krugarr nodded, he remembered that she had been concerned that they would need to interfere, something their type of magicals didn’t do. The born magic users of Terra and the learned ones didn’t get along with each other. In fact, there were treaties written that kept the two from interfering with each other. The threat of Voldemort was enough for her to consider breaking it.

“Well about eight months ago, he disappeared. According to the Wizard propaganda he went to Harry Potter’s home on October 31st and killed the infant's parents, but when he went to kill the baby one of two things happened,” she took a sip of tea. A strange light danced in her eyes as she told the story. Krugarr felt that if she hadn’t become the Sorcerers Supreme, she would have been a storyteller of some form.

“The first is that this man tried to kill Harry, but it had no effect causing him to flee the country and go into hiding. The second is more popular with the masses is that he was killed outright when he tried attacking the boy.”

Krugarr tilted his head thoughtfully, “ _how could he have killed a full-grown adult? He’s not that powerful yet. He did turn me blue for three days though._ ”

“Did he?” She was amused at the thought of his hue change. “Well either little Harrison is more powerful than a full-grown wizard, or there's something afoot. Knowing how things tend to work on this plane, it’s probably the latter.”

“ _What makes you think that?_ ”

“Now that you’ve brought me another piece of the puzzle, I have more of an idea of what’s going on,” she leaned back a bit, “while they’ve been celebrating the end of a war the boy they’re toasting to is growing up in parts unknown to them. By the time they get him back I’m pretty sure that he won’t be what they’re expecting. There’s a reason for it, and I certainly can’t wait to find out what that reason is.”

“ _Do you believe this ‘Voldemort’ is dead_?”

She looked thoughtful for a moment before answering, “I am hesitant to say affirmatively one way or another. I feel that what really happened is a mixture of the two stories that have been reported. But as I haven’t been able to locate either himself or Harry in the timeline I can’t follow it to its conclusion to see.”

Krugarr gave a nod, the Ancient One was unable to see someone’s potential future if she couldn’t find them in the timeline. Sometimes she could find them in a specific spot and follow them for a time, but eventually, she would need to return to this plane of existence. Even she didn’t know if it was a limitation of the time stone that made it harder to track individuals through the timeline or if there was something she hadn’t learned yet.

 _“But why the title?_ ” He asked.

“No one has ever survived the type of curse that was used on the boy’s parents. Since it appears that he managed to kill the ‘Dark Lord’ as well, he has become quite the celebrity.”

She eyed him for a moment before setting down her cup, “but to answer your original question, his magic will be Terra based, it's woven into his blood. He can learn our type eventually but he will need to learn from his own kind on this planet, or else he’ll become an obscurus. A dangerous form of uncontrolled magic that will lash out and kill without reason.”

“ _How do I explain this to his parents?_ ” He could already see the number of questions that Stakar and Aleta were going to have.

“Well you can start with the truth, their son is a folk hero, and will need to be prepared for fair-weather friends. By the time he turns eleven, he will have fame thrust upon him, no matter which wizarding school he is sent to he will undoubtedly cause a stir. People will want to use him for his fame, and manipulate him for their own gain.”

He couldn’t hold it in any longer, he had to tell her of what he suspected. He didn’t want to ruin the friendly mood they were having. Unbidden, the little boy’s face floated into his mind, followed by the faces of his parents who were relaxed and looked happier than he’d ever seen them. He took a deep breath and plunged in.

“ _I believe there is a soul fragment within a scar on the boy’s head_.”

The Ancient one looked him dead in the eyes, so still was she that Krugarr was wondering if she was breathing at all.

“Explain.”

He told her everything he’d learned about the scar while he’d been isolating it. How it had fought back, how Harris had been having near-constant nightmares ever since Aleta had found him until he’d isolated the fragment.

The Ancient One listened, not interrupting him once, she simply sat there staring off into the middle distance. It was several minutes before she gave him her full attention once more. Looking older than he’d seen, and battle weary.

“Krugarr, the boy is in grave danger.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Its short, I know but better than nothing right? :) 
> 
> Also sorry it's a day late for those of you who are subscribed sometimes the brain just doesn't want to co-operate. (I also had a completely different chapter in mind for this but decided it would be better to place it further down the line.) 
> 
> The next chapter will rejoin the people of the Starhawk, and Falkor, there might be a time jump, not too sure at the moment. It may or may not involve a parental reaction to their son's folk hero status, and the other thing. 
> 
> Let me know what you thought, what you liked, if you didn't like the title having a "pt 1" in it, or if there's a cataclysmic error in the chapter. I'll see you in the next chapter!
> 
> (Yes I'm using the 2016 Doctor Strange's version of the Ancient One as I have no other reference to the character from the comic lore. And I enjoyed the actresses performance in the roll and felt it was far too short.)


	10. Revelations and Dread Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stakar and Aleta learn more about the Terran wizarding world than they bargained for, each responds in their own way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mind the tags.

Stakar hated to ask this of his first mate, after all not having to ask him to watch Harris was the secondary reason they had Jorgen watching the toddler in the first place. But Jorgen was feeling sick and had been confined to the med bay for at least the next twenty-four hours.

The last three months had gone well. After putting up new route ideas to her crew, Aleta was on her first trip back into her usual hunting grounds since they’d picked up Harris. She and her crew had agreed on taking one long haul at the beginning of the year, and several short well planned jaunts back after that so that she could be near Harris. So far it was going well. Jorgen was watching the boy when Stakar needed to get things done, and when he wasn’t working he had the little boy at or on his hip.

He was growing like a weed and was an early riser since he had started sleeping through the night. Harris made use of the connecting doorway into his Dad’s room almost every morning waking him up no matter how much sleep the older man had gotten.

With Jorgen being out of action, Stakar would need to keep Harris. The only problem was that the toddler got bored quickly, and seemed to think that if Daddy was doing Captain work that was the perfect time to climb up on his lap and demand attention, or snacks. Neither of which would aid in Stakar getting any work done.

“Please Marty, just for a couple of hours so I can get some paperwork done,” Stakar said, pleading with the crystalline man who was scowling at him.

“Fine, but you owe me for this.”

Martinex looked down at the toddler who had decided that sitting in the middle of the room was his best option at the moment. Harris had been cranky all day and was almost begging for his Mama. He’d even tried to swipe the datapad out of Stakar’s hand at one point only to throw a fit when her face wasn’t on the screen, and Martinex knew it.

The odd couple left the room and Stakar got down to business to defeat the paperwork he’d let pile up. He’d only been at it for twenty minutes when his communicator went off. He did his best to not sigh when he looked at it, only to be relieved for it to not be Martinex.

“Krugarr,” he said with a smile on his face, “what’s going on in your neck of space?”

“ _I would like to speak to you in person, I’m aware that Aleta is unreachable at this time but I need to speak with one of you as soon as possible.”_

“Well, the only thing in your way would be the travel distance.”

Krugarr looked annoyed, _“are you in your office?_ ”

“Yeah?”

The line went dead and for a moment Stakar couldn’t understand what was going on until a ring of pulsating gold and yellow appeared in front of his desk. Krugarr slithered through it and then seemingly ended the spell or whatever it was he’d done.

“Ah, I’d forgotten you could do that.”

Krugarr gave a nod before pulling up a chair to sit down, a somber mood seemed to permeate the room. Stakar had a creeping feeling about what Krugarr was going to tell him. Aleta got premonitions, he got something similar that would manifest in different ways. That didn’t mean he liked it any better.

“Well, what’s so important you portaled all the way here?”

“ _It’s about Harrison.”_

Aleta and her girls were at a rare port stop, restocking their provisions and energy supplies. Though some were partaking in other activities, she was taking the opportunity to get off the ship for a while. Ports in her hunting grounds were few, far-between, and poorly maintained. The one they were at today was one of the good ones and a favorite of the crew. Aleta liked it for a different reason than most. The main one being the way the starlight illuminated the planet giving it a pinky-orange cast, making even the most mundane things look like artwork.

A memory started to play in the back of her mind as she walked the roads towards an open field. One of when she’d been a girl and was seeing ‘off worlder’s' for the first time. They were of another now extinct species and at the time Aleta had seen them as odd-looking. But in that curious way that innocent children have when they don’t know they are being rude but still have questions. Of which she’d had many, and had expressed each one to her father, before stating she wanted to go off-world too and find pretty things.

Aleta gave a huff at the memory of her father turning purple in anger, he’d never been one to contain his rage in that manner. He normally would have just slapped her and told her to shut up. This time though he’d taken to screaming at her how there was ‘nothing but darkness’ and ‘there’s nothing of beauty out there’, oh and her favorite, ‘you’ll die if you try to leave Arcatius’.

And here she was so many years later that she’d lost count of the actual number of years. Still alive, wading through the seemingly endless darkness, finding beauty wherever she went.

She found a nice sized rock to sit on and watch her surroundings, peace washing over her in a way that had been eluding her for the last month. She kept looking for Harris when she was on the ship. The Falkor and the Starhawk weren’t too different in their layouts, when she would round a corner her mind liked to play tricks and make her think that Harris was there. She missed him, it broke her heart to leave him. She would do her job and get back as safely and quickly as she possibly could. She’d probably get him something too if there was time.

She wasn’t surprised or alarmed when her com went off, she didn’t even look at it as she pushed the button. Luta was probably calling to tell her that the ship was loaded and that she was the only one not on board. But she wanted a few more minutes of bliss before she had to return to the ship. She’d often wondered why she kept on saling if she dreaded getting back on the ship so much. Yet she dreaded being stranded on a single planet more. Being trapped in one place for however long it took before her time in this galaxy came to an end. She’d rather be enclosed with people she liked, with the constant threat of being blasted into the vacuum of space while moving around to new places, than being confined to one relatively small sphere for the rest of her life.

“Aleta,” she looked down at her com, to see Stakar’s face. He looked frazzled, his hair was a mess and he wasn’t in his uniform, only the long-sleeved undershirt that he wore under it was visible to her.

“Stakar, has something happened,” she started to stand mentally walking through the steps she’d need to get back to him.

“Not in the way you’re thinking, so calm down.”

He sounded resigned like he’d been awake for far too long and was just rolling with the punches now.

“Do you ever get tired of other people, ‘leta?”

“You called to ask me that?”

“Humor me.”

“Yes.”

He chuckled, “I’ve always loved your honesty,” he paused, his face getting a faraway look to it, “do you get tired of people’s antics?”

He must be drunk, he was getting philosophical on her and he knew she didn’t like talking that deep. It made her head hurt too much from trying to suss out every little detail of an argument. She’d rather just throw a knife or fire her blaster at the problem and be done with it.

“I guess.”

“Leta,” he took a deep breath, “the man who killed Harris’ birth parents might not be dead.”

She shrugged, “well he’s Terran, even with magic he’s not getting off that rock without making some noise. I’m sure we’ll have advanced notice.”

“Leta, darling,” she hated it when he called her that, mostly because her father had used that on her, it had taken years to realize that it was a term of endearment from her husband rather than an insult.

“What?”

“Harris, he… he didn’t come out of that unscathed.”

“I know that, he had a cut on his head, and nightmares remember?”

“There’s something in the scar.”

She felt her brow furrow at that, trying to comprehend what he’d just said, “excuse me?”

“Krugarr is here and letting me make the call, but that odd magical thing he found is a bit of the soul from the man who killed Harris’ parents. Somehow it got embedded into the cut before you found him and had been leaking into his brain. Krugarr isolated it to keep it from doing any harm to him but we’re on a clock now to figure out how to remove it.”

“I...I don’t understand.”

“It could kill him, our son would be gone and this thing would be there in his place.”

“Like a parasite?” She asked, still trying to wrap her head around what she was hearing.

“Yeah- ouch Krugarr don’t yell at me,” Stakar winced in pain from what she assumed was loud telepathy usage from the other being, “fine then you explain it.”

The camera turned and Aleta got a good view of the lounge and finally of Krugarr who was looking a bit exasperated. But she couldn’t take any of it in, her mind still swirling around and grappling with the concept that her son was dying.

 _“Aleta, it’s not as bad as it sounds_.”

“Isn’t it?” She was not hysterical, she wasn’t, her voice breaking was from an air bubble that had gotten stuck in her throat.

“ _Stakar told you the worst-case scenario, which would be possession. Now, from what I found and my reexamination of Harris the fragment is too small to do that on its own._ _The most it can do at the moment should it be unleashed from my protections is cause nightmares. Stakar got the soul fragment confused with ‘Horcrux’ which is a similar piece of magic but much nastier to deal with_.”

“What does that mean?” She asked, as horror crept down her spine chilling her more than the day she’d seen her home engulfed in flames, while her skin felt as if it were being touched with a hot iron.

“ _It means that Harris will be fine, I am researching how to safely remove the fragment from him with the Ancient One. Who is very interested in this_.

 _“But_ ,” he continued, “ _the fragment is so small that it has led us to the conclusion that his attempted murderer might still be alive. Normally the vessels that are used for containing a soul fragment are non-living. It is the Ancient One’s opinion that he had made a few more before the one in Harris’ scar. If someone were to perform the right ritual with one of the other fragments, he could be brought back and pose a danger to Harris again.”_

“He’s in danger, how?”

Krugarr shifted, _“if this man, ‘Voldemort’, finds out about the fragment, he might try and summon Harris, or track him down since the fragment is a literal piece of him.”_

Aleta shut her eyes, she didn’t want him to see what she was feeling. It didn’t help that she didn’t know what she was feeling exactly. Other than her son was in danger and from what she could understand there was nothing she could do about it.

“What can I do?”

“ _Love him,_ ” she opened her eyes again, _“love him and continue on as if you know nothing. It’ll do no good for you to tell him that there’s a part of him that is bad. It’ll only confuse him and upset him. If we can’t find anything to remove it before he’s an adult, you can tell him then. But while he’s still a child say nothing.”_

She nodded, that was probably the only thing she could do at this point.

_“Now would you like to hear the good news? Seeing as someone only let me relay the bad?”_

Luta considered herself to be a simple person. She liked her job, she liked her blaster, she liked not having to deal with an over-emotional Captain or one that would make passes at her constantly.

She’d been a Nova piolet before she’d been shoved out into the ‘Vacuum Zone’ after only having her wings for a few seconds. The ‘Vacuum Zone’ was where most of the Nova pilots who were sent there were almost immediately turned into ice-cicles after their ships had been blown to bits. The longest time for a pilot to remain in flight in that area was fifteen minutes. She’d lasted a full hour before her ship's systems started failing and she’d bailed out. A black market life support patch in place. It would have only bought her a couple of hours at most if not for an M ship that was returning to the Falkor passing by.

The girls had picked her up and offered to return her, her choice had been obvious. She was sure that her family had been given the honors afforded to those who had lost someone in action. It wasn’t like she’d joined Nova to see the Galaxy or anything, she’d joined to get away from someone.

She’d worked her way up through the ranks on the Falkor and made a tidy sum for herself as a Ravager, content in her place until Talla died.

Talla had been the first mate before her, she’d been killed during the boarding of a smuggling ship that was trading in flesh, rather than honest stolen goods. Talla had been a large personality, which made up for her dainty appearance, she’d been the Captain’s right hand. The hole that had been left by her death was still mending for most of the crew.

Luta had never asked to be promoted, she didn’t even know that the Captain had been watching her. A week had passed after Talla’s death and they’d all just assumed that the second mate had been promoted. It was a surprise when the Captain had called them all together and selected Luta.

She’d only been in her position for a year, and she supposed it had been relatively easy. The boy had been a bit off-putting, but they’d all rolled with it as the Captain seemed easier to be around.

Except, for now, the Captain had been all out of sorts, but she’d never been out of reach. They were ready to leave port after what should have been a brief stop, and they couldn’t find their Captain. Luta secretly dreaded having to be the one to report in and tell the Admiral of the fleet that they’d lost his wife. The next time she found a sludgy ugly thing around the ship, it was going in Doria’s bunk as she should have been the one promoted and not herself.

They’d tried everything to find the Captain, and now search parties were starting to file back in without the sought after woman. Luta was making a last-ditch effort on the off chance that they’d all jumped the gun and she was still on the ship somewhere. She was heading to the Captain’s cabin.

It wasn’t uncommon for the first mate to have access to the Captain’s quarters, but there had been something about Aleta that had kept Luta from ever using that privilege. She wasn’t sure what she’d call it, the woman had the mind of a steel trap, coiled and precise. She seemed to calculate her every move and fit her attitude to meet it. Just when Luta thought she had the other woman figured out, she’d catch a glimpse of something lurking beneath the surface. Something that would set her pink hair on end. Almost as if there was actual power under the woman’s skin, and the skin was barely containing it.

Those glimpses were rare, but even rarer were the glimpses that reminded her that the Captain was a person. One that had feelings that were locked away, probably for the same reasons Luta kept her own locked away. Making the entry to her cabin almost like walking on sacred ground. A sanctuary that should not be breached.

Luta braced herself for what she might find as the cabin door slipped open, even a barked order to leave. Upon first glance, she started to rethink her ‘sacred ground’ ideals.

There were star charts everywhere, tacked up on the walls, draped over the desk, on the floor. Some books were scattered in random areas, mixed in with other sheets of paper, writing utensils, metal bobbles of varying types that had been nicked from the supply room. What struck her the most though were the upturned drawers.

Seeing the drawers pulled out of the desk, and presumably, a cabinet from somewhere gave her pause. Had someone ransacked the Captain’s cabin? Had she been kidnaped, and this was the result of a struggle or fight?

“Captain Aleta?” She called out, hoping that the woman in question would saunter out of her adjacent bathroom. A smirk on her face and blood that wasn’t hers on her hands.

What she got was a low moan from the aforementioned bathroom. Bile was slowly rising in Luta’s throat as she cautiously stepped through the mess on the floor. In the bathroom on the floor of the shower with her head on top of her knees sat Aleta. A quick survey told Luta that the Captain didn’t appear to be hurt, but the remains of a bottle and the stench of heavy alcohol gave her pause.

“Ma’am, are you alright?”

For a moment she didn’t think she was going to get a response. Luta was about to press her coms to get a hold of medical when,

“ ‘m the Cap’in I’ve got ta be alright.”

It was mumbled and slurred, but it was an answer. Luta sighed, she might simply be drunk, and she could handle drunk.

“Ma’am, does your cabin normally look like this?”

“No,” she said, then after several seconds of Luta waiting for her to say more, “I was upset.”

“About what?”

She had a couple of guesses, either the Admiral had done something, or someone had died. Those were the only two options seeing as anything else wouldn’t warrant such a reaction.

“Harris.”

The boy. She hadn’t thought about his being a factor, and after seeing how much time she spent with him whatever had happened made sense. She didn’t care too much personally but it was in her interest to keep an open mind about the Captain’s interests so that she didn’t step on any toes.

“What about him?”

“He’s got people trying ta kill ‘im, and people who tink he’s a big superhero. And one day,” she took a shuddering breath as if she might cry, “one day he’ll have ta leave. He’ll still be a little boy, not all grown up and able to take care of ‘im self.”

When she saw the tears rolling down Aleta’s face she made a decision.

“Ma’am, I’m going to get some tablets to help with your headache and I’ll be right back, don’t move there’s glass everywhere.”

Luta didn’t wait for a reply or a reprimand she walked out the way she came in. Her back straight, boots heavy on the metal beneath her feet. The crew couldn't find out that Aleta was drunk, but they could find out that she had some sort of “reproductive issue”. Medical code for if one of them was having a hormone flux or anything that had to do with their respective cycles. To her knowledge, the Captain hadn’t had one in a long while so she might get by with it. Granted she had no idea if Aleta’s reproduction cycle acted like hers or not. She was just counting on the ship's doctor not calling her out on it.

When she got back to the cabin she could hear retching sounds from the bathroom. Luta made her way in and saw that Aleta was bent over the toilet, breathing in gasps.

She set down the tray of things that the ship's doctor had forced on her. Apparently, Aleta had gone through “reproductive issues” before and they had left quite the impression on the medical staff. Thankfully there were things that she could use for helping Aleta with the hangover to come in the assortment.

“Ma’am?”

Aleta spit before taking a deep breath to look up at her. She looked paler than usual, her lips almost blended in with her skin making her green eyes stand out more than they usually did. Luta couldn’t tell if years had been added or subtracted from the woman’s face seeing as she appeared almost childlike and aged all at once. She decided that it didn’t matter and pulled a cloth from the pile before wetting it with water.

“I find that a cool cloth helps,” she said, offering the damp cloth.

From where she stood it seemed to take a great amount of effort for Aleta to reach out and take the cloth. She wiped her face with it before tossing it onto the counter.

“Thanks.”

Aleta made no move to try and get up, “Ma’am, are you alright?”

“Won’t be long and I’ll be throwing up again, too much of the good stuff and my body reacts like it’s poison.”

“So giving you the re-hydration tablets would be a waste?”

The corners of her mouth turned up, “yeah, would be, yeah.”

“Would water help?”

“Not yet, after my body is sure the ‘poison’ is gone.”

She was whispering and swaying a bit, Luta wasn’t sure what to think about the sudden shift in demeanor. She’d gone from drunk to semi-lucid in twenty minutes, not something she’d seen in other Xandarians or other humanoid species before.

“Ma’am-”

“You’ve been the first mate for a year, Aleta ‘ill do,” she said, cutting off Luta’s protest.

“Aleta,” Luta said, slowly, “should I get the doctor?”

“No, I’ll be fine in an hour or so. Just need to sleep the rest of this off and drink a lot of water after.”

Luta wasn’t convinced, she’d never seen Aleta this sick before, and she could drink most of the crew under the table. Why now would what looked to be a couple of beer bottles make her this sick? Unless it was tainted.

“Could the alcohol have been tainted?”

A low chuckle came from Aleta, “no chance.”

Luta glared at her and waited.

“Only certain types of alcohol can get me this messed up,” she explained, “my Father made sure of that.”

Luta was taken aback at the way Aleta spat the word ‘father’. She’d only heard such contempt from the other woman when dealing with slave traders or rapists. She even spoke of the Collector better and she despised the man for an unknown reason. Not that Luta blamed her, the guy was creepier than a black hole.

“He changed me,” Aleta said, softly, “made me something unnatural. A freak.”

Luta saw her hands shake as she tried to figure out what to do with them.

“Stakar too, he was my only choice of partner. No one else would have even glanced my way with what was done to me. Not once they found out.”

Luta did her best to keep her face neutral as if she were dealing with one of the girls after a nightmare that they were telling her about. While fighting back her own memories.

“He killed my children,” Aleta went on, tears streaming down her face, “now, my new son might die too. He’s so little, too little to hurt anyone and some full-grown wizard wants to kill him. I can’t go through that again.”

Luta wasn’t sure what to do, her Captain was a sobbing mess, clutching a toilet in the middle of glass shards. Only hours ago Luta would have said nothing could ever bring her Captain low. But she was just another woman. She had her cracks and dents too, but like any good ship, she could be mended.

Luta knelt next to her and overriding every sensibility that she had about being ‘professional’ she wrapped her arms around Aleta. She had nothing to say that would make it better. Nothing that would mend the new blow to the woman’s heart. But she didn’t need to go about mending it alone.

The lights were casting a dim glow within the Starhawk’s decks. The night shift was coming on deck and the day shift was heading to their evening of relaxation.

Stakar took no notice as he sat gazing out at the passing stars and planets from the viewing platform, his mind whirling in a feeble attempt to try and make rational sense of what he’d learned. He had thought that Krugarr was joking about Harris being a folk hero. Even outright laughed at the idea. The more he thought about it though, the more dread pooled into his gut.

His son was a folk hero. His praises were probably being sung by school children and adults alike. Bringing up a new myth for the boy’s generation, but the myth was about him and not some mystical unreachable thing or being. It was about a sweet little boy who had yet to be toilet trained.

Stakar had been sitting there so long that when his communicator finally went off, it was Marty informing him that Harris had fallen asleep and he was going to put him in his bed. Stakar felt a bit of shame after that seeing as he had completely forgotten about his son for a few hours as he tried to absorb the new information about his son.

He managed to collect himself enough to make his way to the officer's quarters, giving Marty’s door a knock as he passed. Letting him know he was back and he could rest easy without having to worry about Harris. He entered his quarters but still felt restless. He walked over to the closet and slipped through the passage to check on his son. Once he’d poked his head in he had to back out quickly to keep from waking those within with his laughter.

Once he had control again, he walked in and surveyed the display in front of him. Harris was in his bed, and so was Martinex. The toddler was wrapped around him like some sort of tentacled fish, even in sleep, he appeared to have a tight grip on his Uncle. Marty too seemed to have fallen asleep with a children’s book in his hand. Stakar guessed that he’d been reading it to him when he nodded off.

He pulled out his camera, he never went without one these days as Harris could be cute at a moment’s notice, and snapped a picture of the pair. He was sure that this could be used for blackmail one day, or a precious memory. He didn’t have pictures of his older children, they’d all been destroyed when they died.

The smile he’d been wearing disappeared at that thought. Harris was in danger, and unlike his older siblings, his parents had advanced warning about it. Stakar’s eyes trailed to his son’s forehead to where the scar sat just above his left eyebrow.

Krugarr was right, Harris was going to need guidance on how to keep himself from being hurt. How to deal with people who would want to manipulate him. But how did you teach that to a child without damaging them?

He lingered on the sweet sleeping face. He needed Aleta, he needed the rest of the team. They had to have some ideas on how they could prepare him for his future. Or better yet, he probably had a book somewhere that could help. After all the boy was only two, he would have plenty of time to teach him, and it wasn’t like he’d be out of contact with them when he went off to that pig-pustule school. They’d still be able to guide him even if it was from a distance.

He’d be fine. They’d be fine. He told himself, even if the rolling dread in his stomach seemed to have a differing opinion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think, what your favorite part was, if the dread was enough, or if there's anyone you want to give a hug to. 
> 
> There's gonna be a time jump in the next chapter, I'm thinking things are going to progress a bit faster now, but I make no promises. 
> 
> Have a great day and I'll see you at the end of the next chapter.
> 
> ('Hog-pustual' at the end of the chapter is how Stakar's translator relayed "Hogwarts" to him. His translator is a fancy version of google translate, sometimes it's way too literal)


	11. Playtime and Bank Heists

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's play time for the members of the Starhawk. (mind the tags)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is brought to you by the end of finals!

One Month later

Stakar watched as Harris babbled at the colorful stairs in front of him. He was still mastering them as most stairs on the starhawk led to places he was not allowed to go. Which was one of the reasons why he’d been bringing him down to this playground. It wasn’t too many jumps away from the main ship and the area was known for tourists, which made it easy to go unnoticed by the general populous.

There were plenty of kids around too. Harris has been shy at first, not wanting to let go of Stakar at all, but he’d warmed up in the last few weeks. He was more than willing to run around with the other kids and go down slides, or climb the play set as he was doing now. He’d even made a little friend, who was just a little pinker than himself with yellow hair. Stakar had a feeling that the kid was a local as he was there just enough times that his mother had attempted small talk with him. Not that he minded small talk, he just had to keep an eye on what he said, so that he didn’t have to uproot Harris yet again.

It kept them both out of trouble as Krugarr had almost lit his coat on fire the last time he’d asked him for information about Voldemort. And he rarely got that annoyed with anyone. Stakar couldn’t help it. He wanted to know where the threat to his son was and every advantage he could have against it. His inability to understand magic in anything more than a simplistic explanation hindered this process.

Harris made it to the top of the steps and grinned as he bounced on his feet, “Da, Da Fedge do!”

Stakar laughed, “look at you! I’ll be able to let you fix ships in no time.”

He gave a giggle before toddling over to the entrance to the slide. Stakar kept an eye on him as he rounded the equipment. He’d learned early on that two-year-olds had no fear when they were having fun, or at least a warped sense of it. He’d tried to leap off from the slide more than once, Stakar did not want to have that conversation with Zhane again.

To his relief Harris decided to slide down like a normal person and landed in his Dad’s waiting arms. It was getting dark and most of the other children were being taken home by their respective carers. He glanced down at Harris,

“What do you say Fledge, should we head home for some dinner?”

“Cookie!” He said, clapping his hands in excitement.

“Only if you eat your veggies, you wouldn’t want me to eat them and turn green would you?”

“No. Dada no,” his eyes became large with concern at the idea that his Dad might turn green.

“Oh good I’m glad I won’t turn green.”

He started walking out of the nice area that was built around the park. It reminded him of the near forgotten layout of homes where he’d grown up. Quickly he brushed those thoughts away. He would deal with them later.

Stakar was settled down in the chair next to Harris’ bed, reading to himself as the small boy dozed in sleep for the night. He’d found that keeping a toddler entertained was not easy. Shopping had been one way he’d found to help with the hours that he didn’t need to work while Jorgen was doing his work. As Harris was banned from the tailoring room after dumping a container full of pins at the moment. The little boy loved getting to go shopping, something Stakar wasn’t too fond of himself but did for Aleta as a way to spend time with her.

He’d managed to pick up a book about Terra on one of these trips, a fairly accurate one by the looks of it. In his line of thinking if he couldn’t work things from the magic end, then maybe he could work it from the baseline Terran end. Harris would need to know about how Terra worked anyway seeing as he’d have to spend seven years going to school there.

School, the idea of it struck him suddenly.He hadn’t thought about school. He highly doubted that knowing a dozen galactic languages, how to tell if someone cheated you units, or how to read blueprints for a bank heist would be considered ‘schooling’ for a Terran child. He’d need to be able to read and write in the appropriate language, do maths, and any other sorts of things.

Panic was rising in him. This wasn’t simple, he’d thought schooling the triplets was hard, they’d taught them at home since they moved around a lot. But this time doing that, while convenient, wouldn’t get him to a good place. They had played with neighbor kids, much to Aleta’s discomfort, as she’d had trouble trusting anyone outside their family group at the time. But there were no other children for Harris to play with on the Starhawk. Only adults, and not the most well adjusted ones at that. Which was probably why Stan had been asking about his playing with other kids for the last couple of months. He was probably concerned for the boy’s development.

Stakar had taken years to get to a place where he could properly interact with people. When he’d been small he’d been passed around as if he were an unwanted casserole. When he got a bit older he’d run away and started fending for himself, until Aleta’s father had found him and taken him in.

He’d taught himself to read, and preferred books to people. He often wondered if it was his odd behaviour that had made Aleta not care for him for most of their childhood. When he’d shown his brain off in a task that nearly killed every sixteen year old in their trial year, she’d started paying attention.

That and her father had told her to keep him from dying as best as she could. Which she had. He didn’t complain about that, he was scrawny and drugged to the gills with whatever they’d been putting into his body. But it was more her following orders than because she liked him. That came later.

He smiled at the memory, she’d been drunk on the floor of the bathroom of their shared hotel room, when she’d admitted to liking him. Neither of them were anywhere close to wanting to sleep together at that point. But he had felt a bit of pride when she said that. He then proceeded not to mention it until she was his wife. She hadn’t been amused at the time, she had probably been hoping for something more romantic.

That was behind him now, he had to look to the future and make it better for his son. Finding an appropriate school would be paramount, so would children he could play with too.

His data pad blinked next to him, signaling a message from the bridge. He picked it up and quickly read the text. Someone wanted to contract them to retrieve a gem from a bank box that was being held with the aforementioned bank. Simple quick could be done in under fifteen minutes, as long as they had no complications. A slow grin crossed his face as a plan started to form. This was going to be fun.

Being held hostage was not fun.

If he could get the percussion section that was playing in his head to take a rest then perhaps he’d be able to focus on the situation at hand. Namely the amateurs that had decided that detonating random areas of the bank was a good idea.

All it had done was cause panic, death, and injure the very people they wanted to rob. Stakar counted himself to be one of the lucky injured hostages, who were now all rounded up in front of the banks main counter as one of the yahoo’s paced back and forth in front of them with a bomb jacket and a medium-sized gun.

He kept trying to figure out what type of gun it was, but there were so many variables that he could only guess that it was either a new prototype or was some sort of homemade abomination. Or his head was injured worse than he thought, which was always a possibility. He felt like he was forgetting something important.

He started thinking through what had led up to this, he’d woken up in his bed, talked with Marty, started to put together the plan to rob this very bank, decided he needed to case the place himself because who would suspect a father and son looking into starting a bank account-

Harris. Where was Harris?

He glanced around looking for the toddler but he was nowhere to be seen. Cold swept over him, and for a few moments, he couldn’t move. He had a crew waiting for his signal if something went wrong, but if he pressed his ‘panic’ button he’d never hear the end of it, even if it was warranted. The casualties would also be too high, Ravager, civilian, and Harris could be among those hurt or worse.

He rubbed his hands together trying to get the cold out of them. He needed to do something so that he could find the boy and not cause him any further harm.

One of the common criminals ran back into the main room. He’d gone to get into the vaults with the lion's share of the small group to get what they’d come for.

“It’s locked.”

The pacing being stopped, “and?”

“Well we can’t get in-“

“That’s why I had you take the bank manager with you.”

“Yeah well, he’s kinda dead.”

Stakar wanted to laugh at the shock that was emanating from the other thief. The pacing one was obviously the brains of the operation and if he weren’t holding him hostage right now Stakar might have considered recruiting him. As the leader started to lay into the man who’d brought him the bad news Stakar got an idea and started to push to his feet despite the woman who was trying to stop him.

“Sit down!” The leader screamed at him pointing his weapon at Stakar.

_‘So it’s a homemade abomination, I should be able to take a direct hit from that. It’ll definitely trigger the ‘panic’ button and have the team in here to get me out,_ ’ he thought, putting his hands up as he made eye contact with the man in front of him.

“I’m a safecracker, I can get you in,” he said. The weapon lowered just a fraction.

“You can?”

“Yeah, I do it all the time for rich people who’ve forgotten their combinations,” he rolled his eyes, which made his head hurt, “I’ll open it for you if you let me find my son and leave.”

There seemed to be a twitch in the mans’ body, “you don’t want me to let these other people go?”

“I told you what I want for my services, take it or leave it,” Stakar said, summoning his best Captain's voice, which sounded weak to his ears.

After a few moments, the leader barked at the messenger, “take him back, if he tries anything shoot him.”

Stakar took a deep breath, willing himself to not fall over with the pain in his head. He’d gotten too used to sitting at his desk, he needed to get out in the field more if this was how his body responded to a bump on the head.

He was led down several hallways by the lackey, having the impression that he had been down them before. He tried to figure out if he had been down them but couldn’t recall the memory.

When they reached the vault there were several other men all dressed in discount combat gear that was probably bought off a hustler who’d stripped it from a dead soldier's body. The disrespect for the dead boiled in his gut, but he shoved it down.

“Open it.”

He stepped past the men, and over the dead body of the bank manager, silently offering his apology for the disrespect. His hands were shaking as he touched the keypad, it was an older model and he could hack it with minimal tools. Which either meant it was a decoy or this bank had it coming in terms of being robbed.

“Anyone got a screwdriver,” he asked, looking over his shoulder, gritting his teeth at the pain it caused.

Someone held one out to him and he proceeded to work at lifting the base off of the panel. It would have been faster if he’d had a couple of other tools that any self-respecting Ravager would have brought with them to a bank heist, but all these bone-heads had brought were a screwdriver, explosives, and guns.

Once he’d pried back the panel he nearly facepalmed, there was an electronic system far more fitting for a bank of this stature staring back at him. Blinking rapidly as the system seemed to double in his vision he did his best to figure out what he was looking at.

“Have any of you seen a little boy running around,” he asked, fingering the wiring as he tried to buy himself more time to figure out the system.

“No,” came a hesitant response from someone behind them.

“Well if you do let me know, he’s mine.”

There was a chuckle behind him as a different voice said, “and why would we do that, he’d probably fetch a pretty unit if you can’t get this open.”

Cold numbness fought with boiling rage, Stakar swore under his breath, there was no need to be delicate with this. These men did not need finesse, brute force would do the job just as well.

“Stand back,” he said, curtly as he backed up over the manager’s body. The lights overhead started to flicker as he pulled the particles he needed to get through this door. Natural light would have worked better, have been cleaner but he didn’t much care at the moment. The beating in his brain got louder, pulsating out through his temples to the point he was sure it could be heard by the other men around him. He put his hand up and fired at the door.

His ears were ringing as he staggered back with the recoil. He landed on a wall and slid down it, his vision going hazy. He couldn’t understand why though, he’d been practicing with targets a couple of days ago and hadn’t reacted like this. His whole body was shaking as his hearing returned to normal.

The thieves were shouting about something, but it was such a garbled mess of language that he was certain his translator had stopped working.

“DA!”

The scream brought him back to his senses, somewhat, and had him trying to get up to get to the small frightened voice of his son. He heard shots fired as he struggled to get up ultimately falling to his knees at the sound. Only to hear intense howling that accompanied his son when he was being picked up by someone he didn’t know.

He couldn’t stand, he wasn’t even aware of what was going on around him other than there was screaming he had to get to. It was the only thing he could really think about as he made attempt after attempt to get on his feet. A small cry slipped out of him when the screaming stopped, and his world went black.

Martinex frowned at the screen then at the building he was across from, Stakar had been in there too long. Even if the bank was larger than they’d thought it was, two hours was too long. His fingers itched to press coms and activated the extraction team, but he waited the heavy feeling in his gut only increasing as he did.

They were all staggered on the street across from the bank, a team of eight on rooftops or in alleyways observing the outer activity of the business. It was part of the casing procedure. Marty could tell that the others were getting antsy too.

“Sir,” said one of the lieutenants who was monitoring radio traffic, “there’s police chatter, someone’s called a robbery in progress for the bank the Captain is in, explosives and guns.”

Stakar would never try to rob a bank in that fashion, he preferred to use ammo on people who deserved it, not civilians. He wouldn’t even consider doing anything more than a simple casing job with Harris around. He pressed his com button.

“Go in, find the Captain and Harris, shoot anyone with a weapon. We’ve got the inside of ten minutes. Do not harm Harris.”

He vaguely hoped, as he got up from his seated position from the building across the street, that he wouldn’t be receiving a promotion. It wouldn’t last long once Aleta found out.

Stakar was laid out on the floor, eyes closed, gold blood trailing down his face and his nose. There was a huge hole in the vault door as Martinex approached, he heard adult voices yelling and a scream that he’d come to know all too well. Harris was in the vault with dangerous lowlifes. There were people behind him, they would take care of Stakar, he had to get Harris out. If the Captain was alive that’s what he’d order Marty to do.

Pointing his blaster at the ground he approached as fast as he dared, his heavy feet scarcely making a sound above the ruckus coming from the vault. He peered around the corner and saw four men in tactical gear, a dead body that appeared to be female, and one toddler who was screaming his head off and fighting to get away from the man who was holding him. Only the sheer size of the man’s arms was keeping the irate toddler in his grasp.

He would have to act fast, as soon as Harris saw him he’d give him away. A small touch nearly had him shoot the second mate who had come up beside him. Three other men were lifting Stakar from the floor in a medical manner that Doctor Karr had taught them, three more were behind the second mate.

Martinex took a deep breath and signaled the plan to them, once he got affirmative nods he turned back to the scene before them. It was time to show these amateurs what the pros could do, too bad they wouldn’t be around to learn from their mistakes.

On his signal, they burst into the room. He charged the man holding Harris, his blaster was no longer drawn as his crystalline body mass would easily be able to take down the more fleshy being in front of him. His fist, which was also as hot as boiling water by this point, connected with the being’s face. The man dropped Harris and fell backward howling at the pain he was in from the third-degree burns on his face.

Martinex paid him no mind as he focused on cooling down his hand and blocking Harris from any stray gunfire. He would later wonder how the boy had landed on his feet, but the toddler ran up to him, his face red from tears and covered in snot.

“Mawwie!”

Martinex accepted the boy into his arms, hoisted him up, and bolted out.

“I’ve got the Eyas,” he said, shouting the boy's code name into his com as he ran back up the hallway, “on my way to the Hawk.”

“Roger that, backup has been called for.”

“Unnessaccary, meet at M ship we’re getting off this planet and heading straight for the medbay.”

“Roger sir, over and out?”

“Over,” Martinex said, as he hit the now empty lobby. Well, empty save for the dead bodies that were strewn all over the room. Harris gave a small whimper and he rubbed the boy’s back.

“It’s ok little guy, you did well. We’re heading to the ship, you’re ok,” Marty said as he ran out the door and down the street, not bothering to see if the others were following him out as he would have if this had been any other situation. There was no way he was going to jeopardize Harris’ safety for a few men who, sadly, could be replaced.

He didn’t stop whispering _‘you’re ok_ ’, or some variant of it until they reached the M ship. He was gasping for air by then and didn’t have enough excess to speak anymore. His eyes landed on the small medical station they had on the ship. It was mostly for first aid or stabilizing wounded crewmates. But the sight of his Captain laying there unmoving as the crewmates with first aid training moved around him was enough to make him throw up.

Feet pounded up the gangplank behind him, “ready for liftoff.”

He turned just enough to see the four men who’d been behind him nearly fly up the ladder to the cockpit as the second mate started yelling out orders. Taking charge when he saw that his superiors couldn’t. Marty felt a bit of pride at that as he’d been banging his head against the wall trying to get the officer to take initiative.

“I’ve got the ship, sir, you take care of the Ogords,” he called over his shoulder, climbing up the ladder as he did so.

Marty felt a tension release at that and turned to sit down in one of the flight seats, fastening himself in, Harris on his lap. He’d settled down a bit and was only whimpering a little. His eyes were glued to his Dad as the crew working with him flipped switches to keep him stable while they hurried to the seats next to Martinex.

“How is he?” Marty asked as the ship started to lift off.

“He’s out of our skill range, but we’ve been able to stabilize him I think,” replied a Lieutenant.

Martinex nodded, it would have to do for now. They were at least twenty minutes from the _Starhawk_ , they’d have to keep it together until Karr could see him.

“I need someone to radio the main ship, have Karr waiting for us when we disembark.”

The Lieutenant snorted, “will do sir.”

Marty looked down at Harris who had seemingly glanced back and forth as they’d had their conversation. Should he call Aleta? She would flip when she found out about this he knew. She’d also burn record flight speeds to get back and see for herself that Harris and Stakar were alright.

He sighed, deciding that if the situation was serious enough that he’d call her. If not he’d let Stakar deal with it. He just hoped that the older man would be able to deal with it.

“Mawwie?”

He looked down at the little boy, “yes Harris?”

Big green eyes looked back at him, “cookie?”

Martinex did his best not to start laughing hysterically, “in a minute kiddo, in a minute.”

“Tay,” he said, before curling up against his chest, the promise of a cookie having convinced him all was right in his little world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *hides behind couch* Everyone ok? 
> 
> Let me know what your favorite part was. Or if Aleta should find out about this? I have a feeling she will eventually but when is the question. :) Do you like the long chapters or would you like a few shorter ones? 
> 
> I'm thinking a time jump is going to happen, but only a small one.


	12. Concussions and Repercussions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the longest chapter thus far. (6,000 some odd words)

The M ship nearly slammed through the jumps to get back to the _Starhawk_. Martinex did his best not to grit his teeth as he felt the subtle jolts. His crystalline makeup being able to sense almost any sort of turbulence up to the molecular level. Or that’s what Charlie liked to say when he was teasing him.

His eyes drifted back to Stakar, his fellow officer had said he was out of their skill range. That coupled with the fact that the captain hadn’t woken up yet set him on edge more than the turbulence did.

Harris seemed to be feeling the effects of Martinex’s mood and was cuddling up to him trying to find a soft spot. Sadly the only soft spot he had was his heart, but that wouldn’t bring the little one comfort right now. He rubbed Harris’ back trying to soothe him.

“Landing in three,” came a shout from the top deck, “Karr is waiting for us.”

Marty made sure Harris was secure just in time for the rough landing.

Everything passed in a blur as Stakar was taken off of the M ship and transferred to a stretcher for Doctor Karr to take him to the medical wing. Marty was halfway to the medical wing when he realized that Harris shouldn’t be there. He’d already been through enough he didn’t need to watch Karr work on his Dad. He needed to find Jorgen.

As he started to backtrack towards the tailor’s quarters he spotted the last person he’d expected to see today.

“Yondu, what are you doing here?”

“Was in the area,” the Centenarian said, “is Stakar ok?”

Marty shook his head, “I don’t know, can you take Harris to the tailor’s for me?”

Yondu’s eyes got big, “wha? No, I don’t know nothin' about kids.”

Marty rolled his eyes, “You don’t need to know anything about kids, just take him to Jorgen for me. Harris,” Marty switched his attention, “you’re gonna go with Yondu to find Jorgen, your Dad and I are going to work.”

“Cookie?” The little boy asked.

“Later,” Martinex held him out to Yondu, who gingerly took hold of him as if he were afraid he was going to be bit.

“Don’t call Aleta,” Marty said as soon as he was certain that Yondu had Harris, before dashing off towards the medbay. Crossing mental fingers that nothing bad would happen to Harris while he was in Yondu’s care.

It was easy to separate the dreams from reality for Aleta. The sepia coloring gave the memories away. Then there were the times when fate decided she needed to relive her memories; The pain of the first needle, the anguish of death and loss, the ecstasy of love, the wonder at a child’s first steps. The emotions guided her on nights like this when her reality and dreams melded together. At least this time it was a sweet one.

_Aleta was wrapped up in a blanket as if she were a child who had been brought into her parent's bed after a nightmare, naked as the day she’d come into the world._

_Stakar was next to her, still asleep as the morning light slipped into the room, the beams of light illuminating the skin of his shoulder. He’d been struggling with one of his headaches again and had been asleep for the last few days. Only waking to swallow a few sips of water and whatever food she had been able to mash down into a paste. Chewing was too much for his aching head._

_They’d just finished a small job and had planned to stay planetside until a trawling ship or some other vessel they could find work on came into port._

_His affliction had come on just as fast and mercilessly as all the previous ones had. They’d only just managed to get back to where they were staying before he was in so much pain he couldn’t walk. Everything landed on Aleta to care for, she didn’t mind it so much now that they could afford food and a place to stay when this happened. She did wish that they could figure out how to deal with the migraines though._

_The pain had lifted in the early evening the night before, allowing him to get some real food into his system. He had then reached out to her, eyes hopeful. What had happened next was something wonderful. They’d been experimenting a bit, trying to see if they were more than just partners in the business sense, testing each new boundary slowly. One step at a time._

_Last night had been a new step they’d taken, this morning the repercussions of the previous night’s step would be felt. They would only need to decide if they would move forward, or if they should try and pick up the pieces. If they could find them all that is._

_His eyelids started to flutter, a sign that he was waking up. She felt self-conscious as they did. Did all lovers know little things about each other, things that were so specific? She’d never had the opportunity to ask anyone who would have known. Everything was trial and error, she often walked the line between creepy and distant. Even if she didn’t want to._

_You couldn’t grow up as an experiment and come out unscathed. You could try and pretend though._

_At last his eyes opened, for a second she wondered if he would ask her why she was in bed with him, or where her clothes were. Or worse push her away, having claimed what he desired from her. He gave her a lopsided smile._

_“Hi,” he said, voice still croaky with sleep._

_“Hi.”_

_What was she doing? She wasn’t a child, she could come up with something better to say, or more to say than just one word._

_“How’s your head?”_

_‘Bravo Aleta, you’ve broken the atmosphere there ol’ girl,’ she said to herself._

_He was still giving her a lopsided smile, “fine.”_

_“Right then,” she said after a few moments passed then attempted to get out of bed without embarrassing herself further. Doing her darndest to keep from thinking that last night had been a mistake._

_“‘Leta,” his hand shot out and wrapped around her waist, “wait a minute, just let me wake up, please.”_

_She looked at him, gone was his grin and in its place was concern. She laid back down next to him on the bed. Waiting._

_“So, last night happened,” he said._

_“It did.”_

_He looked at her uneasily, “do you want to talk about it or-”_

_The sentence hung in the air, if it dropped it could be explosive. Like a grenade just before it hit the ground._

_“I liked it,” she said, once she realized that he was waiting for her to pick up his sentence._

_“Ok, so do you want to keep doing it?” He asked, brows furrowed._

_“Yes.”_

_He gave a nod, the look that came over his face was one she associated with his thinking. He did that a lot after they took a new step forward with their relationship. She wasn’t sure who did more thinking him or her._

_“You know what could happen if we do it a lot right?”_

_She shifted, she knew he was only checking to see how far she’d thought ahead. How far she was willing to go._

_“Technically I could already be pregnant,” she pointed out._

_His eyes darted to the far corner of the room, as if embarrassed._

_“I haven’t thought that far ahead,” she said, “but I think that as long as it’s you I won’t mind.”_

_His eyes flew back to hers, whatever this bond they had was it allowed them to understand each other in moments like this. Moments where they had nothing, yet everything._

_“I love you,” he said, whispering as he did before letting out a large sigh, “I’m glad I can finally say that. I’d been waiting for the right moment, wanted to make it romantic for you.”_

_“And the right moment was the morning after you had sex with me?” She asked, raising an eyebrow._

_“No, I… wait I didn’t tell you before when we were watching the sunset?” He asked, his eyes widening with horror._

_Aleta shook her head no, and he put his head in his hands._

_“My headache came on so fast- I’m sorry. I-I thought last night that I’d already said it to you and couldn’t remember it because- and I had it all planned out too-”_

_Aleta stared at him as he floundered trying to explain, she decided to help him out and silenced him with a kiss. The kiss went on for a while before she pulled back for air._

_“I love you too,” she said, before kissing him again and pulling one of his hands into a more useful position._

Aleta’s eyes opened and she was staring at the black metal ceiling of her cabin. The dream had ended.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes again willing herself to not scream in frustration. She loved that memory, the first time they’d said what they’d been feeling for years. Too bad it only came around when Stakar had gotten himself into trouble. Trouble that bordered on ‘ _near-death experience_ ’. Why that precious memory had to be linked to her husband being in trouble was beyond her understanding.

Deciding that it was time to get up and figure out what the bonehead had done this time she swung herself out of her berth and began to pull on her outer layer of clothes. A bit of hope that she might have to make a trip to the _Starhawk_ in order to sort things out formed in her chest. Her eyes drifted to the small toy that was sitting on her desk for Harris, and the flat box that held something she knew Stakar would enjoy. She would like getting to be home for a bit.

Yondu didn’t know what to do. Jorgen was busy and had plainly stated that the small child was not allowed in the room while he worked. Which left the young Captain in a precarious situation. He couldn’t leave the kid on his own, Yondu’s instincts told him the boy was too young for that. But he couldn’t just hand him off to any blue-coated yahoo that passed them either. Marty would probably make good on his threat to skin him and turn him into a new loot bag.

What does one do with a kid? He didn’t look hurt, or happy, but he certainly wasn’t screaming his head off like most kids did when they were around him. Yondu thought back to the first time he’d interacted with the kid, back at his birthday. He’d liked the candy and snacks that had been there, he’d liked the arrow show Yondu had done for him, and he’d liked Mainframe’s ship.

Yondu felt his coat being tugged on, he looked down at a pair of big green eyes, “what?”

“Cookie?”

“Ya wanna cookie?”

Harris nodded, Yondu thought for a moment, “alright, let’s go see if there’s any in the mess.”

He started walking, his heavy feet making loud clanking noises as he did, he was halfway down the hall when the crying started. Whipping around he saw that Harris had fallen, his little foot having gotten semi stuck in one of the grates.

“Aw come on buddy, you don’t gotta cry,” Yondu said, trying to mimic Martinex, “it's ok, stop crying.”

He felt helpless as he carefully picked up the kid, “look let’s go get ya that cookie.”

He sniffled a bit as he tried to stop his crying, turning them into hiccups, “c-cookie?”

“Yeah, we’ll get lots of 'em, then we can watch ships in the hanger.” Yondu beamed at his sudden idea of how to keep the kid occupied.

“Cookie, ‘ip?”

“Yeah,” Yondu started walking, “I’ll tell ya all about ‘em just like yer Dad did for me.”

“Da?”

Yondu felt his back tense up at the small whine that came from the boy, maybe he shouldn’t have mentioned Stakar.

“Yeah, I’m sure he’ll be lookin' for ya soon, he’s just got a bump on ‘is head is all.”

“Cookie?”

Yondu chuckled and started walking faster, if the kid could just not think about Stakar for a bit he might be able to handle him until the old man was up and at ‘em.

Marty wasn’t answering his communicator. Neither was the main ship. Not even Stakar was answering her. The only other place she could think to call on the _Starhawk_ was the medbay, at the very least Dr. Karr would bluntly tell her what was going on.

She put the call through, her back ramrod straight as she did. She was sure the girls around her could feel the tension that was radiating off of her, the bridge was unnaturally quiet.

“Captain Aleta,” Dr. Karr said, looking haggard.

“Doctor, how are things?”

He gave a sigh, “he hasn’t woken up yet.”

Her gut clenched wriggling about as if there were a nest of worms within her, “how long has he been unconscious?”

“Two days now, I expect that you’ll be making a visit if he doesn’t wake soon?”

“Karr, just so that we are clear, which of the two most important males in my life is unconscious?”

Karr’s face went slack, his eyes widened giving him the look of a dead fish for a moment before he regained his senses. An angry smirk replacing his shock.

“It’s your husband Ma’am, I’m sure you would have been alerted sooner if it were Harrison who was in trouble. Though he does seem to be keeping questionable company ever since the botched bank casing.”

“Bank casing?”

“Oh yes, apparently some low-level street crooks had the same idea we did, rob a prestigious bank. I haven’t seen the security footage that Martinex has acquired but apparently, they used crude explosives which knocked the admiral out for a bit and gave him a concussion. Meanwhile, Harris was swept up by a bank employee and spirited off into the bank vault.

“Not long after the vault was breached, but then our boys ran in and saved the day rescuing the admiral and young Harrison.”

“Then why hasn’t Stakar woken up yet?”

Her chest was tight, there had to be more for Karr to look like he wanted to commit murder. A small niggling feeling in the back of her mind wouldn’t leave her alone, Stakar should be awake by now.

“He was the one to breach the bank vault, he used a lot of energy blasting it open, then promptly fell back against a wall and passed out. He has a top-tier concussion any more severe and he’d be dead. If he doesn’t wake up soon he might spend the rest of his life as a vegetable.”

Aleta blinked, once, twice, a third time, each time it became harder to see the doctor on the screen. A green-clad arm entered her vision.

“Ma’am, breath.”

Aleta gasped for air, trying to take as much in at once as she could at Luta’s prompting.

“And that is why I told Martinex to call you two days ago,” Karr said, anger lacing his voice, as a look of retribution shown from his eyes.

“Harris,” she croaked. He had to be alright, Karr had said it himself, she would have been alerted if there’d been something wrong with him.

“He’s physically fine. Yondu is here and he’s been plying Harris with cookies to keep him calm when he’s not with Jorgen. Marty hasn’t allowed Harris in to see the Admiral.”

Aleta took a deep breath, “I’m gonna have a new chandelier then.”

Karr gave a barking laugh at her statement, and the snickers she heard from the girls on the bridge reminded her that her minor breakdown had been witnessed by a lot more people than she wanted.

“May I watch Ma’am?”

Aleta gave a smirk of her own, “we’ll see, I’m on my way. Don’t tell Martinex.”

“Yes Ma’am,” Dr. Karr said, glee in his voice as he saluted her.

Aleta stood up from her seat as soon as the call was disconnected.

“Ma’am,” Aleta turned to look at Luta, “are we heading to the ‘Starhawk’?”

Aleta thought for a moment, they weren’t anywhere near being done with their planned flight path and Luta was still trying to find her feet in command. Sometimes you had to learn by being dropped into the deep end of things.

“No,” Aleta said, smoothly, “I’ll go on my own, you keep to our course.”

The shock in her first mate’s eyes was evident. Aleta gave her a smile that she hoped would instill confidence in the woman.

“Just keep the ship in one piece, and the crew from killing each other Luta,” Aleta said, before exiting the bridge she had a few things to collect before she left.

“What do you mean Aleta is twenty clicks out?” Stakar asked, alarmed at what his first mate had just told him. Granted he looked just as alarmed as Stakar felt.

He had woken up a few hours ago in the medbay after being unconscious for three days. He hadn’t expected to have been knocked out that long. But the only thing he’d been concerned about was Harrison. And the fact that lifting his legs was a near mythological feat. Now he had to worry about Aleta too. She couldn’t know what had happened inside that bank. She’d kill him for sure. He had to get down to the hanger to meet her first.

“I’ve got to get out of here,” he said, starting to push back the covers on the bed, willing his legs to move.

Dr. Karr seemed to have heard him and appeared around the partition, “Oh no you don’t, get back in that bed.”

“Karr you’re starting to sound like my wife,” Stakar groused, still working to get out of his bed.

“Captain I will sedate you if you don’t voluntarily lay back down. Engineering even made me a tranquilizer gun for just such an occasion. I named her Thelma.”

Stakar looked at him, “you wouldn’t.”

“I would.”

“This…. This is mutiny.”

“Not if it’s in the Captain’s best interest health-wise,” Zhane challenged, his eyes were wild, “I’ve spent the last three days wondering if we’d be having a funeral and if a certain little boy would lose yet another parent. You will do what I say or suffer the consequences.”

Stakar stared at the man dumbly. Martinex wasn’t even taking the man to task in his Captain’s defense. He pulled his gaze away from Dr. Karr and looked at Martinex. The crystalline man didn’t hold his gaze for long.

“We thought you were gone, if you hadn’t woken today I would have been calling Aleta myself.”

Stakar found his voice at that, “look I’m glad everyone was so concerned, but I’ve taken worse hits in my life. I need to keep Aleta from chewing my ear off, she’s done it before as you may know.”

Karr’s eyebrow went up, “I don’t recall seeing such a note in your records, sir.”

“Not mine, some other idiot who decided to cross her. I just need to be there when she lands, I can sweet talk her and leave her with Harris for a bit. Then you can do your medical voodoo and I’ll be fixed before she leaves.”

Martinex shot a hopeful look at the doctor who appeared to be gritting his teeth, possibly at Stakar’s description of his work as ‘voodoo’. But in the end, he threw up his hands.

“Fine, but you need to be back here before dinner for the meds you need. They only come in IV form so don’t try arguing with me about sending them with you. Unless you want to walk around with an IV pole as a new accessory?”

Stakar shuddered at the thought, he’d spent four weeks walking around with such a pole when he was fourteen, he didn’t want to repeat the process. He gave Karr a nod of agreement.

“Good. Now get out, sir.”

Karr left them with an almost conspiratorial look in his eye. Stakar made a mental note to never cross a line with the man, he was just as crazy if not more so than Aleta when she got her hackles up. Nothing short of divine intervention would stop her when she got that way, and she took no prisoners.

Heaving a sigh Stakar managed to get his legs to cooperate, an uncertain look from Martinex had him putting on a smile before asking the all-important question.

“Martinex, where is my son?”

Stakar found Harris where Martinex said he’d be, in the hangar watching the ships. He just wasn’t with who he’d thought would be watching him.

Yondu was handing his son cookies and telling him about the different ships that were coming in. Stakar wasn’t sure how much Harris was understanding beyond “ship” and the blue man handing him more cookies. Stakar came to his senses when a third cookie was passed to the toddler in his presence.

“Harris,” he called out, the boy turned and his face lit up squealing with delight.

“Da!”

He ran to Stakar and hugged his leg, the cookie still clutched in his hand. To Stakar’s dismay, it was full of little multi-colored sweets. Bedtime was going to be murder tonight. Having to go back to the medbay was starting to sound better.

“Yondu, what brings you here?”

The man in question gave a snaggled tooth smile, “I wanted to discuss a job with ya, it looks a bit odd. But Marty said you were in the medbay.”

Yondu shrugged, Stakar could see the well-hidden concern that the other was trying to hide, he’d scared them good.

“Then o’l sparkles asked if I would help watch the kid something about some pins?”

“Oh, he dumped Jorgens pins and now he can’t be in there while he works.”

“Yeah well, we’ve just been eaten’ snacks and watching ships.”

“Snacks?”

“Yeah, he uh didn’t seem to remember me so I had ta get him to follow me around-“

“Harris,” the little boy looked up at him, “don’t go with anyone who offers cookies. Got it?”

“Dup!”

Stakar sighed and picked up the little guy, placing him on his hip.

“Is that what that means?”

“Yeah,” Stakar said before dodging the drool covered cookie that Harris was trying to shove in his mouth. Apparently, he had learned to share in the last three days.

“Well ya feeling any better?”

Stakar snorted, “I have been told that I have to be back in medical before dinner.”

“Well at least ya got out, mine straps me down if he even thinks I’m gonna bolt.”

Stakar narrowed his eyes, “when was this?”

Yondu looked away from his mentor, “I heard that Aleta was on her way?”

“She is,” Stakar said, allowing the distraction, “that’s why I’m here. To meet her before anyone else can tell her what happened. She’s waiting for a landing signal.”

Yondu’s eyes widened a bit, “well then I’ll just make myself scarce then.”

“You do that and I’ll send her to your ship to find out why your medic had to strap you down.”

The younger man scowled at that but didn’t make for his ship, instead, he saluted and walked towards the bowels of the ‘Starhawk’.

“Harris, are you ready to see Mama?”

“Ma?” The toddler looked around wildly.

“She’s on her way, she’ll be coming in the hanger on her ship soon.”

“Mama ‘ip?”

Stakar smiled and took to talking with the little boy as they waited for Aleta to land.

Aleta walked off her ship with a swagger of a confident woman, and the smile of a cunning thief. Which only served to further endear her to her husband as Stakar approached her, a wriggling toddler in his arms.

“Miss me, boys?” She asked, practically catching their son as he managed to launch himself from Stakar’s arms.

Which was good since Stakar’s arms felt like dead weight after holding the boy for the five minutes it had taken for her to land. Harris was jabbering away at his mother, and she nodded at varying intervals.

“You don’t say,” she said, when Harris paused long enough, “you’ve been a good boy since I’ve left?”

Harris nodded and clapped his hands. Aleta smiled and with her free hand pulled out a small windup toy from her bag.

“Well good boys get surprises,” she said.

The toy looked like a Terran monkey with little cymbals that clinked together when you wound it up. Harris took the toy and promptly put it in his mouth, much to his parents' amusement.

“Hi,” Stakar said when she turned her gaze to him.

“Hi.”

“So, what brought you all this way?”

Brilliant, Stakar she most definitely won’t suspect a thing if you keep on with your fabulous communication skills.

“Oh,” she said, lowering her eyelids a bit as she spoke, “I just missed you is all. Both of you, but I couldn’t stop thinking about you so I decided a little visit wouldn’t hurt.”

Stakar almost gave a sigh of relief, “Well then, you and Harris can visit while I finish up some things with Martinex before dinner. Then we could ‘catch up’.”

He watched as her eyes drifted up and down his body, almost carnivorously.

“No Mawwie,” Harris said, not looking up from the toy Aleta had brought him.

Both of his parents looked to him suddenly, as if he’d just appeared as opposed to having been there the whole time.

“That’s right Harris, Marty is busy. But you’ve got Mama don’t ya?” Stakar said with a smile on his face.

“Do I want to know?” Aleta asked, before shifting the boy on her hip so she could walk with him.

“Probably not,” Stakar answered as they started to move towards the inner halls of the ship.

“Just do you know,” Aleta said, in a conspiratorial tone, “I got you something too.”

“Did you?”

“I just so happen to be wearing it.”

“Oh?” He could feel his heartbeat in his temples now, and a small hope that Karr could get him all squared away before dinner.

“I’ll be happy to show you after someone is asleep.”

“No ‘ap!” Harris said, causing both parents to stop their flirting in surprise.

“You’re right Harris,” Aleta said, seriously, “it’s not nap time, should we go play?”

He clapped his hands at the idea, happy to have his Mama back. They walked to where the hallway split towards the fork that would take them either to the main heart of the ship or towards medical. Aleta paused.

“Stakar, why don’t you go back to medical and I’ll come to check on you in a few hours.”

He nearly lost his vision whipping his head around so quickly, “what?”

“Go back to medical, we’ll see you in a few hours,” she repeated, slowly, “I called yesterday and found out about your concussion. Go.”

Stakar’s shoulders slumped, he knew he wasn’t going to get past her order. Even if he was on his ship.

“Fine, but I want a cookie from the mess.”

Aleta nodded as Harris yelled about getting yet another one for himself.

“I’ll see what I can do.”

He started down the hall when he turned to call over his shoulder, “ask Yondu why his ship's medic had to tie him down for me will ya?”

Satisfaction slid on his face when he heard an exasperated Arcartian curse hurled at him. Maybe it was the leftover drugs in his system but he felt giddy at the fact he’d just gotten her to swear in front of their toddler.

She couldn’t help the fond smile that pulled at her lips, the image before her was far too sweet. Stakar and Harris curled up in bed, the younger possessively clinging to his Dad as the older read to him from the Nova Corps ' _Galactic Animals Guide_ ’.

Stakar was still hooked up to IV’s in the medbay, Dr. Karr was unwilling to let him go back to his cabin and had ordered his Captain to stay overnight for observation. Much to the latter’s dismay as she was sure he’d worked out what she was harboring under her leathers. Depending on his condition for the next few days that she would undoubtedly be spending there she was sure he would get to enjoy what she’d brought for him before she left. She might want to give him a sound thrashing for involving their son in a botched bank heist before he was even old enough to understand what a bank was, but she wasn’t going to be cruel.

If he was still awake when Harris went down to bed for the night they’d talk about it then. Hopefully without shouting.

They’d reached the entry about Bildgesnipes when, out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Martinex. A glance at her boys told her she wouldn’t be missed and she slipped out of the medbay and into the main hallway. Going the direction she guessed Martinex to have been headed allowed her to nearly sneak upon him. But he turned just as she came within striking distance and was able to block the glowing fist that had been aimed at the back of his head.

“Ma’am?”

She didn’t respond, with a sweep of her leg she took out his own from beneath him. He fell to the floor with a heavy thud. She planted her foot in the middle of his sternum to keep him from getting up, a secret weakness that she’d learned from years of sparring with the man currently beneath her. Once he was down it was unlikely that he would get back up when in a fight with Aleta if she so desired.

“Why didn’t you call me?”

Her voice was a low and menacing growl as she glared at him, ready for any attempt to escape. He shifted a bit under the pressure she was applying but otherwise made no attempt to escape, yet.

“I didn’t want to worry you,” he said, pausing for air every other word, “I didn’t think it was as bad as it was.”

Aleta’s eyes narrowed to the point they were mear slits, “and what do you think would have happened if I were not alerted? Harris needed a parent with him, and the only one that was here was unconscious. Not only that but I’m the next in line for the position of Admiral, in the event that the current one is incapacitated I should have been altered so that if the worst happened I would be within range of putting out any undesirable squabbles.”

Both of her hands were starting to glow now, “you of all people should know what a precarious position you just had the whole fleet in by not calling me. How many Ravagers would love to take advantage of the death of the highest-ranking officer to elevate themselves? I ought to kill you for the oversight.”

Her voice stayed the same throughout her tirade. The man beneath her made no argument as she laid out the stupidity of his actions before him. He’d been at Stakar’s side for nearly forty years now, a record even by Nova standards, he should have known better.

“I understand,” he said after a few seconds.

“It’s not just the fleet either. You put Harris in danger, how many people do you think would have actually cared about what would happen to him? I was a day and a half away Martinex, I would have been two and a half if I hadn’t called to check up on them. I know that most Ravagers wouldn’t want to keep him on until I was able to get here, even if you were able to hold the ship you can’t watch a toddler and command a vessel. Jorgen’s a soft target, he would have been taken out and possibly Harris too.”

An interesting thing happened then, his face became nearly see-through rather than having a bluish cast to it as normal. He didn’t protest, he didn’t say anything. His lips were pursed together in resignation. Aleta took a deep breath, she’d gotten through, and released her anger by breathing out.

“If you were one of mine you’d be dead.”

She removed her foot from his torso allowing him to take deep breaths for the first time since she’d landed him on his back. She started walking back towards the medical wing, looking over her shoulder she called back to him.

“You’re Stakar’s second in command, act like it.”

She was still too wound up to go back to the medbay so she took a walk around the ship, eavesdropping whenever possible. Thanking whatever lucky star her husband had been born under that there were no whispers of mutiny.

She checked her wrist comm to see if there were any messages from Luta, but there were only progress updates with their current coordinates, no news was good news on that front. She was confident that the other woman could handle the command for the time she would be away. When she got back to the medbay Stakar was reading something on his datapad silently as Harrison now lay asleep on his chest. Still clinging to him. She walked over to a chair that had been placed at the bedside and attempted to make herself comfortable.

“You don’t have to say here,” Stakar said, looking up from his reading, “you can go back to the cabin.”

“I wanted to talk.”

He looked at her, sizing her up if she was being honest with herself before gently setting the datapad aside. When he looked back to her his face was open.

“Why did you take him with you?”

He shifted uncomfortably, “extra layer of protection. I figured that no one would suspect a father and his young son looking into setting up a trust fund to be casing a bank. Especially if it was hit within minutes of our leaving.”

“I thought we agreed to leave him out of such things until he was old enough to make his own decisions?”

“We did,” he said, with a nod.

“Yet you did it anyway.”

“Yeah, not my finest moment. Martie’s either,” he said.

“Don’t try and get him out of trouble with me, I have every right to be upset.” She said, warning him with her tone and arched eyebrow that he was headed for dangerous territory.

“I know, Dr. Karr filled me in on what happened while he was hooking me back up. I’m not sure what to do about it, he’d done a good job up to this point.”

Aleta snorted, “I think you know what I’d do.”

“Launch him into space,” he said, dryly.

“Nah, too easy. He put Harris in danger, he’d get slow and painful.”

Stakar nodded, his face turned thoughtful.

“Are you willing to take a sincere apology?”

“Maybe.”

“I’m sorry I made a bad decision concerning the safety of our son. I’m sorry I went against our agreement too.”

After a moment of consideration, Aleta nodded, “I’m here until you’re back on your feet.”

He smiled, “that’ll be fun for Marty.”

“I think I got my point across,” she said, watching as Harris shifted trying to find a more secure spot on his Dad’s chest.

“He’s had night terrors again,” Stakar said, “Marty called Dr. Karr to check him every night to figure out what was wrong. Harris called for us, but Marty would let him in. I considered spacing him just for that, but training a new right hand would be worse than kicked in the teeth.”

Her eyes shut at the warning that Harris was unlikely to sleep through the night. She could do this it would only be a few days then she could slink back to the _Falcor_ and get peaceful sleep once more.

“‘Leta, can we talk about something else?”

Pulling herself back to the conversation at hand she nodded at him.

“So I got to thinking and he’s going to have to go to school, be around other kids, I mean we can’t let him grow up knowing he’s going to head off to that Terran school without the proper skills.”

He looked concerned, not that she blamed him, she’d been waiting for him to realize this small issue. Teaching Harris would be no simple feat, not to mention he’d need to know about the culture of Terra from a Terran’s point of view. It was a lot, but they’d faced dauntless tasks before and come out alright. Maybe a little singed around the edges, and there was that one time when Stakar was missing his eyebrows at the end of it all, but they’d made it. So too would Harris.

“One step at a time,” she said, placing her hand atop his, “one day at a time, the three of us.”

He met her gaze and nodded, “together then.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think? Was it worth the wait? Have you ever bribed a kid with candy coated cookies? (in a good way) Do you think Aleta's dream worked? 
> 
> There's going to be a time jump in the next chapter, and a few old friends will be making their first appearances. (Any guesses as to who they might be?) 
> 
> I'm sorry for the delay I was trying to knit a cardigan in a week, I almost succeeded. I'll see you next year!!
> 
> (I edited both notes, I was half asleep when I typed them.)


	13. Moony

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Remus Lupin makes some interesting life decisions concerning his honorary nephew.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is not as long as the last. Phew. 
> 
> Warning: Funeral, and dark intrusive thoughts mentioned. (not putting them in the tags. Don't want them to get too long.)

Remus Lupin fiddled with the frayed cuff of his black dress robes trying to keep his hands warm in the winter air. These thankfully looked like a muggle suit so he wasn’t attracting any unwanted attention. He was however doing his best not to break down in tears as the muggle minister said what he hoped were kind words about his mother, Hope Lupin.

His Mum had been admitted into the hospital shortly before Christmas, complications from her terminal cancer, she had held out until the new year but not long after that. She had been a vibrant woman, encouraging Remus to do his best despite his condition.

Remus swallowed hard, biting the inside of his cheek to keep his tears at bay. His Great Uncle had insisted on a church service, Remus would have been fine with something simpler, but his Dad, Lyle Lupin, hadn’t put up a fight, Uncle Edmund got his way. The only downside to this was that the services were completely muggle. Remus and his father were both Magical so some of the proceedings were a bit different.

He hadn’t experienced a magical funeral until a couple of years previous when the wizard known as ‘Lord Voldemort’ had been killing people faster than a plague of Dragon Pox. His last one had been only two short months ago, though it was two funerals in one really. His friends James and Lily Potter had been murdered by the power-hungry wizard for reasons that were mostly unknown to Remus. For some reason, the man had wanted the Potter’s barely year old son Harry dead.

Thankfully whether by divine intervention, or something James and Lily had done, Harry had survived the attack, survived the killing curse, and sent Voldemort packing. Remus didn’t care if he was packing a coffin or off somewhere remote too embarrassed to re-enter society after getting beat by a baby. All he had cared about was that Harry had been safe.

According to Albus Dumbledore, he was. Remus had been out of the country when the attacks had taken place and had been too late to see the boy before he’d been whisked away to parts unknown. When he’d asked if he could see the boy, just to give him a friendly face in a new situation, his old headmaster had looked thoughtful.

_“I’m afraid that would upset him too much. He’s already having a hard time adjusting to his new family. If he were to see you then he might think you were there to take him back to James and Lily. I’m sorry Remus but we need to think of Harry’s best interests.”_

He’d accepted this. Until the small Christmas present, he’d sent the boy via specialized Owl Post had brought back the gift unopened. He hadn’t put any trackings on it, the gift had even been muggle since Remus didn’t know if he was with a magical or muggle family. He’d gotten it back two days before his Mum had gone into the hospital and hadn’t had the time to process it.

A hand came to rest on his back, he turned to see that his Uncle was standing next to him with a sympathetic smile on his face.

“I’ve got someone to take care of the next step, it’s time we leave.”

Remus looked back at the casket, he didn’t want to go. He didn’t want to leave her. There was a hot wet trickle running down his face, he made to wipe it away, but it was futile. The dam had broken and his tears were running down his face unchecked.

He watched as the last cousin left from the front window, his Dad and Uncle having seen them out. The only people still in his Uncle’s house were himself, Lyle, and of course his Uncle Edmund. Both Lupins would be staying the night and leaving in the morning at the elder man’s insistence. Lyle to his home and Remus to try and find work again, their hearts a little more empty.

He didn’t know who he was trying to kid though, he had no prospects at the moment for a job. Most wizarding jobs had their staff in place for the winter season, the holidays having passed they didn’t need more workers to try and pay. No one would want a werewolf anyway.

His chest seemed to seize up at the thought of having to live with his Dad for the winter, in the cottage that his Mum had worked so hard to make into her dream home. The fairy tale she’d sadly lost when he was four years old.

His mind started towards a dark place, one that he didn’t want to go but with his defenses down he had little ability to stop the intrusive dark thoughts. Normally when they would come up he’d remind himself of the happy things in his life, the good things. But now so many of those had been ripped away from him, leaving him grasping at air.

Harry was the one bright spot until Remus remembered that he couldn’t see the boy. He might not get to be Uncle Moony again. Perhaps they’d meet again, one day when Harry was older. Though he shuddered to think of his honorary nephew calling him ‘ _Mr. Lupin_ ’. Not after they’d been so close. Was it healthy to use Harry as his way of escaping his dark thoughts? A small voice told him it was not. He knew no other way though.

“Remus.”

He turned to see his Uncle Edmund in the doorway, a sad smile on his face.

“Your Dad has gone to lie down for a bit, I was wondering if you’d like to join me for some tea? Or chocolate if you still prefer that, I’ve even got the big marshmallows you like?”

“Alright,” he really did like big marshmallows in his hot chocolate.

He’d gotten through half of his drink with little conversation. He had to admit he didn’t mind just sitting in the kitchen with someone and not having to hold a conversation with them. Not having to lie about being ok. He wasn’t, and he didn’t want to talk about it.

“So, will you go back to work, or take some time off?”

Remus looked up at the question, “I haven't got a job right now. I have to go back to looking for one.”

There was silence from the other man, he sat across from him drinking his tea and a tin of biscuits sat between them.

“Have you thought about my offer from last summer?”

Remus didn’t move, he had thought about his Uncle’s offer. The offer to send him to University. Any of his choosing no strings attached other than him graduating with a degree he could use. It was a tempting offer. He’d taken his GCSEs a year after he’d finished Hogwarts. He had entertained an idea that he might be able to become a historian or perhaps a professor of some sort. But as the war got worse he’d had to shelve the idea, despite Lily and Jame’s pleading with him to keep at it.

“I have,” he said, opting to stare down into is mug rather than look at his Uncle, “I think you’re offer is generous, Uncle but-”

“Remus,” the man’s tone was gentle, grandfather-like, “I know you are a proud man, it’s in our very blood. I just want to be able to know that you’ll have good prospects is all. The best way I can do that is by helping you get an education.”

He didn’t know, no one on his Mum’s side of the family knew about his condition. They did know that Remus was sickly and could contract almost anything at the drop of a hat. At least that was the excuse his Mum had always given people.

School would be hard, not to mention where would he live? What was the point of attending University if he was unable to attend lectures because he had to work, or had a bad turn with the moon?

“I’m not sure I can do it,” he said, settling somewhere in the middle between the truth and outright lying.

His Uncle smiled at him and reached across the table, “Remus, I know you can do it. Your Mum told me your scores, I was floored. You’ve got the mind to go to Uni and make something of yourself.”

Remus shook his head and tried to pull back, “I can’t, I’d be wasting your money.”

“How?”

That was a good question that he hadn’t expected the older man to ask. He’d only expected him to argue that he was bright enough to go. Not ask why he felt it wasn’t a good idea.

“How? There’s the aspect of my needing a job for food and stuff. Not to mention where would I live.” Or where he’d transform on during the full moon.

“That will be covered in the tuition, should you live off-campus then the money that would have bought you a place in the dorms can be used for an apartment. Food will be provided. Remus we can work this out for you. I just need to know you’re willing to try.”

Remus just sat there now staring at his Great Uncle. He was a self-made man owning a good-sized shipping company that transported goods around the world. His son would take over the company when he decided to retire. Remus didn’t know what had endeared him to the older man so much. He didn’t know what to say either. Granted he could hear James, Lily, and Peter yelling in his head for him to take the offer.

Lily would have said, ‘ _you know you’ll love it, Remus, stop resisting_.'

' _Mate, don’t be stupid_ ,' would have been James’ response.

' _You would want to do more studying Remus_ ,' Peter would have said not to be left out.

He didn’t want to think about what the traitor would have said, but it would have been something close to James. Remus rubbed his eyes and sighed.

“I’ll try it, but if it doesn't work out after a term then I’m not going back.”

“How can I say no to that?” His Uncle lifted his teacup in a salute to him.

July 28, 1983

Remus felt so embarrassed that he had forgotten Harry's birthday last year. What with helping his Dad with things at the cottage the previous winter, looking for jobs, and getting ready to go to University; he’d forgotten that Owl post was a thing. A wonderful thing that he could use to keep in contact with Harry. Granted it hadn't worked the first time he sent it but if he used an ' _official post owl'_ things might work better this time. Not to mention any mail screening charms would be defunct by now too.

He was currently in Diagon Alley looking for a gift for the boy’s third birthday. As he didn’t know if he was with a muggle family or not he was trying to keep the magic to a minimum. Which was proving to be harder than he’d thought.

At long last he’d found the perfect toy for the three-year-old, a stuffed dragon. It was black with an orange tummy and didn’t look too scary. He had seen similar stuffed animals in muggle toy shops too. Thus he wouldn’t be breaking any laws by sending it to him. Now if he’d picked the Hippogryph that was right next to it there might be a problem. Perhaps when he figured out if he was with a muggle or magical family he’d send it.

After paying for the toy and having it wrapped he went over to the owl post office. He secured a small note to the now wrapped gift, the note explained who he was and why he was sending the gift. Remus hoped that it would smooth over any worries the boy’s foster parents might have.

He felt his heart soar as the owl took off but was quickly brought back down to Earth when he realized that he still had a list of things to do before work that night.

Security work wasn’t ideal, but it wasn’t miserable. He’d managed to land a job as a security man for the muggle London Underground. His boss was an old friend of a family member who had explained Remus’ chronic illness problem and his being unable to hold a job because of it. It had been rocky at first seeing as he’d been suspected of having a different muggle disease. But a quick trip to a doctor and a note later cleared that up. It saddened him to know that there was an illness that had muggles react to their own kind like wizards reacted to werewolves.

He was thankful for his job though, and thankful that he was able to fit his lectures around it. University was going well, by far his favorite subjects were maths and history. He had often wondered about the differences between muggle history and wizarding history. Granted he was able to pick certain things out that were caused by something from his magical history knowledge. He always had to stifle a laugh or a smile when that happened.

He didn’t know if he wanted to continue with education as his intended major or not. He did like the idea of being a supply teacher, being able to pick his schedule rather than being locked into one, and having to miss because of the moon. He was figuring out that there are so many other avenues he could go down.

When he arrived home in the small flat that he rented near his school he was surprised to see an owl sitting on the window sill. He quickly set his things down and went to let the owl in. It flew in and deposited a parcel on his kitchen table before flying back out.

He walked over curious as to what could be in the package. His Dad sent him things from time to time, so it might be from him. Upon further inspection, his face dropped. The script that was along the top of the package that he’d sent to Harry earlier that day. Big red block letters were atop it too, ‘ _Return to Sender_ ’.

Remus felt his hands shake as he tried to convince himself that he was imagining it. Post owls that were given a package without an address would magically find the recipient. Only if they were dead would it come back, or if the delivery was rejected.

He tore open the package to reveal the stuffed animal happily sitting there waiting for a happy child to cuddle it. He did his best not to cry out in frustration. He walked away from the table for a moment raking his hands through his hair. Willing his emotions to settle. He had to think.

The note. Where was the note? He walked back over to the mess that was now strewn about the table to sift through the packaging. Looking for the note he had sent. If it had come back then it would indicate to him that the package hadn’t been opened, and perhaps the owl hadn’t been able to find Harry due to some sort of magical protection.

The note wasn’t there.

Remus sunk to the floor, the package had been opened. The owl had found Harry and delivered the package and stayed. Owls were not trained to do this with non-magical families too often. Only Hogwarts letters were waited for, or a Ministry letter for the magical individual where it would require a reply. Remus hadn’t requested that the owl wait after delivering the package. So Harry must be with a magical family. But why would they send the gift back?

Anger formed in his gut, he had worked hard to find something suitable for the boy. He’d gone to extra lengths to make sure it wouldn’t damage the statute of secrecy. Whoever Harry was with had the nerve to send the gift back.

Remus had seen what was left of the Potter’s cottage in Godrick’s Hollow. All of Harry’s toys had been left there, and many were destroyed from the magical blowback that had happened in the nursery. It was unlikely that he had many things to play with even a year later.

He stood up and turned to look at the stuffed animal. His gaze then landed on the clock, it was three days before Harry’s birthday now. He had time to look up the spell that he was just barely remembering due to his various attempts to forget. Lily had shown it to him and they had used it to send letters while she’d been under Fidelius charm. It was nearly a direct connection with the person you wanted to send something to. He just needed something with Harry’s magical signature on it.

He grabbed the dragon and hastened to where he kept his trunk. He kept all his magical things in it except his wand, as he sometimes had some friends over to study. Throwing open the lid he pulled out books, quills, and papers, none of them were what he wanted. At last, he found the two things he was searching for. The book contained the spell and the small stuffed wolf that he’d found at the Potter residence. It had been one of three, a stag, a black dog, and a wolf. There should have been a rat but Peter had decided to give the boy a book on animals for his first birthday instead. Sadly it seemed that only the wolf had survived. It would have Harry’s magical signature on it, as he’d managed to make it levitate once according to Lily.

He thumbed through the book quickly and found what he was looking for. He then reached around for some parchment, quill, and ink. He scribbled a note and with a bit of twine secured it to the dragon.

He paused.

Was he doing the right thing? If his package had been received and returned then shouldn’t he accept that and move on? Or was he butting in where he didn’t belong? He warred back and forth for a few seconds before he landed on a firm, no. His gut was telling him this was the right thing. That the returning of a gift in such a manner without an explanation was unusual. To top it off, he wasn’t about to miss his nephew’s birthday, again.

He took a deep breath and began the incantation. He watched as golden swirls surrounded the wolf and the dragon. In a matter of seconds, the dragon was gone and the light that had been provided by the spell faded. He sat back on his heels, exhausted. It was nearly four in the morning and he had a lecture at nine. The mess on the floor couldn’t be ignored though, he set to work cleaning it up. Wondering the whole time if Harry would like his gift.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did anyone guess Remus would be making his entrance? Granted it wasn't with a boom or anything, but Uncle Moony is here and he's not going anywhere.  
> I just can't see Remus not trying to contact Harry at least once over the twelve years they were apart. 
> 
> So let me know what you think of this chapter? Does anything look off? Do you like hot chocolate? What do you think is gonna happen to the dragon-who-needs-a-name? (suggestions are welcome) 
> 
> There will be a time jump, Harris/Harry will be three-years-old!! in the next chapter. Stay tuned :)
> 
> (Posting should resume to pre-winter holidays' schedule, once a week on a Friday or Saturday.)


	14. Dragons and Tea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harris has a playdate, Stakar worries, and the Ancient One has some tea. (she will eventually be elevated to more than that the plot's just not there yet.)

Harris didn’t dare move at the side of his Dad's bed, clutching a stuffed animal. He waited patiently for Daddy to open his eyes. Or as patiently as any three-year-old could. Mama wasn’t there today, the last time he’d waited for them to wake up she been there too. It had been funny because she hadn’t been expecting him and yelped so loud that it had woken Daddy. But he knew that Dad's needed sleep. So despite his excitement, he hadn’t woken him yet. But a three-year-old only had so much patience. He soon started climbing up the bed so that maybe he could see if Daddy was playing a game. To his disappointment, his Daddy’s eyes were still closed. He sat back brow furrowed in deep thought, Daddy needed to wake up so that he could go play with Shelby today. 

Shelby was his friend who he’d met playing, he had yellow hair and liked painting. He’d said they were gonna paint today. Harris was excited that he was going to spend the whole day with Shelby, Daddy just needed to hurry and wake up. He tried bouncing on the bed a little without really bouncing, he’d get in trouble for that, Mama said so. This did nothing. 

Harris stuck his thumb in his mouth as he thought about what he could do. Maybe he should try petting him on the head? Like Mama did for him when she needed him to wake up. If it worked for Mama it was probably a good idea. He pulled his thumb out of his mouth and started to gently pet his Dad’s hair. His thumb might have poked him in the eye, but it was an accident. The petting seemed to work, as the older man blinked himself awake. 

“Harris,” he mumbled, “whas wrong, you have a bad dream?” 

“No,” Harris replied, “I’m gonna go play with Shelby today.” 

His Daddy gave a huffing sound, “right, I shoulda known you wouldn’t sleep in.” 

Harris grinned as the older man sat up and ran a hand through his hair, it was a bit wild this morning, like his own. That was ok though Daddy had magic hair stuff that would make their hair behave. 

“Good grief, morning shift isn’t even up yet,” he said, letting out a sigh before turning his full attention to the boy. 

“What’s that you’ve got?” 

Harris looked down at the stuffed animal, it had been on the small table next to his bed when he’d woken up. It was a shiny black color with a deep orange tummy, it had a long neck, four legs, wings, and a tail. He wasn’t sure where it had come from, he just assumed that one of his many uncles had slipped in and placed it there. 

“Found it.” 

“Hm does he have a name?” 

Harris shook his head. 

“Well, you can think of one while we get cleaned up.” 

Harris grinned, he loved it when Daddy helped him clean up, he got his hair to look just right. Mama didn’t. As long as he was clean and his clothes weren’t on backwards she thought he was ready to go. Harris didn’t like her messing with his hair though, something that he’d yet to consider might be the reason she left his Dad to do his hair. 

“Harris,” Daddy said as he got the magic hair bottles ready. They were both clean and dressed now, hair still wet and almost dripping. It had to be wet his Daddy had explained or else the magic wouldn’t work. “Are you going to use your magic today?” 

Harris was very good at using his magic. It was different from Uncle Kruggar’s magic though. His magic words tended to get him treats, like when he said ‘ _please may I have a cookie_ ’ adding the please would produce his favorite type of cookie. Simply saying ‘ _may I have a cookie’_ would either get him one that he didn’t like or none. ‘ _Thank-you_ ’ was also a useful magic word that should be used often and with any ‘please’ or else the magic would wear off and a simple ‘ _please_ ’ wouldn’t work anymore.

“Yes, Daddy.” 

“Oh good, because if you do use all of it today then Shelby’s Mom might like having you as a guest and ask you back.”

The magic hair stuff must have been ready as Daddy poured some onto his hands, rubbing them together before he started to work it into Harris’ hair. It felt weird and sometimes he giggled because it tickled. But he liked not having it all over the place and looking like Daddy. When he was done he did his own hair which took longer than Harris’ own. 

“My hair is older and doesn’t listen as well as yours does Harris, one day though it might,” his Dad would say every time Harris asked why his own hair didn’t take as long. 

“Now,” he said, having finished his hair, “why don’t we go see if anyone else is up yet?” 

  
  
  


Stakar watched as Harris played in his ‘S _afety Zone_ ’ from the mirror on the side of the pilot’s chair. The small area was outlined with bright yellow caution tape in an area where he would be out of the way when he had to be on the bridge for one reason or another. He also had one in the tailor's room, the medbay, and the kitchen. He was not to go outside of the area without permission. They’d presented it as if he’d be performing a big task by staying in his little ‘ _zone_ ’ playing with his toys. He’d had a couple of weeks learning about his new boundaries before he’d finally accepted them and pretty much stayed there without complaint. 

Stakar smiled, Harris was being so patient while he finished up his duties. He was grateful seeing as the younger was terribly excited to spend his day with his friend. The whole crew was excited too, Martinex had a whole list of things for everyone to do while Harris was off the ship. 

Martinex walked up behind him, “your ship is ready whenever you are sir.” 

“Thanks, Marty, oh and where did you find that stuffed animal?” 

Martinex had been slowly supplying Harris with more stuffed animals. The first one had been such a hit he just kept getting them for him. Stakar had little doubt that he’d produce one for the boy’s third birthday too. 

“Sorry?” 

“That black and orange winged one,” Stakar said, gesturing towards the toddler who was now having the toy in question swoop down on the others. 

Martinex’s face reminded him of a glacier for a moment, “I didn’t get him that.” 

Stakar looked at him before slowly turning his head to where Harris was sitting playing. 

“Harris, come’re for a minute?” 

He looked up and scrambled to his feet, his new toy coming with him. 

“Fledge,” Stakar said, “where did you get that toy?” 

“Found it,” he said, clutching it closer to himself. 

“Where did you find it?” 

“Room.” 

Stakar inhaled, “ok could I see him for a second?” 

Harris looked from his Dad to the toy and back, his eyes indicating that he didn’t want to comply. Stakar could understand, but he needed to make sure the toy was safe. 

“I’ll give it back, I just wanna see how cool it is up close,” he said. 

Harris slowly held out the toy and allowed his Dad to take it. Stakar made sure to bump a switch on his com that would analyze the toy for any and all frequencies. If the toy was bugged it would tell him. Running his hand over the animalistic looking plushy checking for any hidden razors or buttons that could trigger something. He found none. His com didn’t start beeping erratically either so it wasn’t bugged. He handed it back to Harris. 

“He’s very cool, does he have a name yet?” 

“Don’t know.” 

Harris took the animal back and hugged it to himself. As if the toy had been gone for ages. Stakar smiled, he’d figure out who’d sent the toy and let them know it was greatly appreciated. 

“OK, go back to your zone and I’ll finish work so you can go see Shelby.” 

“Tay!” 

The boy nearly ran back to his spot, an excited jitteriness having taken over him. Martinex looked at him with a question on his face. 

Stakar shrugged, “It’s harmless.” 

He had every intention of tearing the boy's room apart to figure out how the toy had arrived and from whom. 

  
  
  
  


Stakar walked to the playground where Shelby’s mom had agreed to meet him at the end of the playdate. The sun was setting and starting to paint the sky a lovely coral color, Aleta would love it if she were there. 

Harra had surprised him twice a few months ago while their sons had been playing, first by letting him know that she knew who he was. Second, when she revealed she was the wife of one of his officers. In hindsight he could see the officer in Shelby’s face. He was stationed on what was known as one of the ‘problem ships’ in that there was a high turnover of captains. Though the other officers tended to stay the same.

Shelby’s Father was the ship's current second mate, Stakar felt bad for him since he knew that the first mate of that ship was a harsh taskmaster. Though he’d have to be what with getting a new captain with what seemed to be every other month that may or may not have the slightest clue as to what they were doing.

As he walked up he tried to put the previous hours in the back of his mind seeing as he couldn’t do anything about it right now. After Harris had been dropped off for his playdate Stakar ordered that all entry logs for the ship be scoured. He wanted to know who was where all night. Stating that if nothing was found by the time the boy came home that night he’d be calling Aleta to find out if she had provided the toy. He didn’t want to worry her just yet or have her laugh at him. He knew his son loved it, just as he did all his other stuffed animals though none as much as his Patty dog. 

After several hours trying and failing to find the security breach, Stakar had been sitting on the floor of his son’s room trying to figure out how to word his upcoming conversation with Aleta, when his eyes landed on Harris’ unmade bed. There was what looked like a thick piece of folded paper tucked safely under the messy blankets. Upon investigation, he saw that it was a note written in a language that he’d slowly been learning over the last year. Whoever had sent the toy was Terran and if he had to guess, magical. 

He’d called Krugarr and the other captain had assured him that he would ask his contacts about this ‘ _Remus Lupin_ ’ who had sent the toy. Apparently, it was some type of Terran creature that they called a ‘ _dragon’_. Krugarr’s assurances had done little to calm his nerves. Someone from Terra had managed to find Harris, and they didn’t even need to leave their planet to do so. So many questions were swirling around in his head. 

‘ _What was to stop Voldemort from doing the same if he were still alive? It took all his restraint not to arrive early to pick Harris up and drag him back to safety. Yet, with magic users proving that they could in fact reach this far, were any of the Ravager ships safe? Would his son be in danger wherever he went now?_ ’ 

He shook his head as he came close enough to hear the two boys playing on the equipment that was only yards away. Harra was sitting on a bench watching them completely relaxed. 

“How was today?” He asked once he was close enough, hoping he didn’t startle her. 

Harra looked up at him, “it went well, he even took a nap without a fuss.” 

“Well, now I have to know your secret because he’s still giving me trouble about that.” 

“Positive peer pressure,” she said, giving a shrug, “they’ve had a great time today.” 

Before he could reply Harris noticed him and gave a shriek of ‘Daddy’ before clamoring down and running over to him. The new stuffed animal still in his arms. He forced a smile as he bent down to catch the hurtling child. 

“Hey Fledge, did you have a fun day?” 

Harris nodded and nearly shoving the dragon in his face said, “‘is name Mooy.” 

“Moony?” Stakar asked, a small smile on his face. He should have known it would be something astrological. His pink dog was named ‘Sar’ after all. 

Harris gave a happy nod. 

“Well, should we thank Shelby and his Mom for a fun day?”

“Tank you!” 

“You’re welcome Harris,” Harra chuckled as Shelby started to protest that he didn’t want Harris to leave, “we’ll have to have you back soon won’t we Shelby?” 

They said their goodbye’s and Stakar made his way to his M ship with his jabbering toddler in his arms. For once the boy didn’t protest not being allowed to walk beside his Daddy and let himself be carried. Too far gone with telling the older man about his day. Stakar did his best to put his worries aside, Aleta was on her way, the Ravager meet up was in a couple of days. Harris would soon be surrounded by people who would fight to protect him simply because Stakar and Aleta were his parents. They were more prepared this time, there would be no surprise attacks where Harris would be vulnerable. Even if he himself ended up joining the numerous Ravagers that had gone before him, he would do his best to make sure his son was safe. 

  
  
November 1983

Remus arrived in his flat, tired after a long day of lectures and work. He’d managed to get a job as a bartender at a pub a few blocks over. The owner had been very understanding when Remus told him of a medical condition that flares up once a month. The man had given him a long look before telling him he could arrange the time off if he had a doctor's note. Which thanks to his Uncle he could, he would have never thought that a muggle doctor would be able to diagnose him with a passable condition that he could use to disguise his lycanthropy and still keep a job for a while. 

He set his books on a rickety table that was next to a worn chair he had procured for the sole purpose of spending hours within it’s embrace studying. Walking to his kitchen he started to make himself a cuppa before he jumped into his text of algebraic formulas. He was so engrossed in picking a cup for his tea that the knock at his door startled him. 

With a quick glance at the kettle to make sure he could leave it he walked over to the door. When he opened it he was surprised by the sight before him. A woman in a black dress and hood, that were hardly the fashion in the wizarding or muggle worlds stood before him. 

“Remus Lupin?” 

He nodded, wondering just who this woman was, though tired his guard went up at the sight of her. Well rounded, her face shrouded by the hood of cloak brought up too many memories of the war that was barely a year and a half past. She could be anyone from a Death Eater, to a fellow outcast looking for trouble. 

“You are a hard man to track down,” she said, “may I come in?” 

“That depends,” he said, “on why you are here.” 

“Harry Potter loved his birthday gift,” she said simply. 

He stepped back to allow her entry, once the door was closed she removed her hood revealing that she had no hair on her head. He could also feel magic pulsating off of her as she took stock of his flat. This woman was no ordinary Witch, her magic had a different feel to it, a different smell. All the primal instincts that came with his condition that he locked away as best he could, reared up urging him to tread with caution. 

A shrill whistle sounded, nearly piercing his newly heightened sense of hearing as the kettle came to a boil. He rushed to the kitchen and removed it from the hob. Hissing at the pain in his hand as the handle had heated up along with the water. He examined the new injury trying to decide if he should just run it under cold water or use one of his precious salves on it later after the danger had passed. 

“You’re hurt.” 

He nearly jumped out of his skin with how close her voice was behind him. Turning to face her he could see her gaze was firmly on his hand. 

“Will you allow me to see it?” She asked. 

Remus hesitated, he still didn’t know what she wanted. If she was here for a good reason or a bad one, everything in his gut was screaming at him not to trust her. That she was far too powerful for him to blindly trust. Though a small voice in his head which sounded like his old transfiguration teacher said to him, ‘ _Oh come now, you trusted Dumbledore blindly, James, Sirius, Peter, Lily, and even Harry, what’s one more chance going to do?’_

Remus cautiously held out his hand to the stranger who took it in both of her own. After a few seconds of what he guessed was thought she murmured some words he couldn’t quite make out as a yellow light fanned out around his hand. Within seconds it felt better than it had before he’d grasped the overheated handle. After she let go he gingerly flexed his hand, nothing seemed amiss. It was then that the manors his Mum had raised him with kicked in. 

“Tea,” he asked, “I’m afraid all I’ve got is bags-” 

“Whatever you have is fine,” she said, still calm as if she had all the time in the world. 

He grabbed two mismatched mugs, taking the chipped one for himself, filling them with tea before placing them on the table. The woman nodded her thanks and sat down. After acquiring the necessary things to finish the tea he joined her at the table seating himself across from her.

“I’m sorry if this is rude,” Remus said, “but I don’t know who you are.” 

“I’d be surprised if you did,” she replied, “I am only spoken about in secret in your wizarding world. A being of myth, a taboo for some in your _‘world_ ’ if you will, I am known as the Ancient One. The title is a bit much for my liking but if the shoe fits,” she shrugged before taking another sip of her tea. 

“Harry is living with you?” 

“No, no, I am here on behalf of a friend of a friend. The people who do have Harry are very concerned about your motives towards the boy. I offered to step in on their behalf, otherwise,” she gave him a sideways glance, “you would be in a less comfortable position being interrogated right now.” 

"I’m not sure I follow.” 

“Harry is now the adopted son of two very powerful individuals, should they wish they could wipe out a good portion of wizarding Britain unnoticed. When the stuffed dragon appeared in the boy’s possession with only a small note, they became suspicious.” 

A numbness came over him, he didn’t know how to respond to the information he’d just heard. He fiddled with the chip in the handle of his cup. He now knew he needed to tread with even more precaution than he had when the ancient one had removed her hood and let her magic flow into his flat undisguised. 

“They’re a political type then?” 

That got a chuckle, “If they’re political then I’m the Queen of America. No, they are hardly intentional political players. They are business people who are accustomed to working with people who are just a few steps above the lowest of the low. You are an anomaly and they just want to know your intentions towards their son.” 

“He’s not-” Remus stopped himself, closing his eyes to prevent the wince. She had said Harry had been adopted, therefore he was legally their son now. As if James and Lily had never existed at all. He had to be willing to accept these people if he wanted to build a relationship with Harry. 

“I was Harry’s honorary Uncle,” he said, the words coming out thickly, “Uncle Moony he called me, I just want to fill that role to the best of my abilities. I mean him no harm.” 

The Ancient One nodded, “are you prepared to have everything you think you know about the world turned upside down Mr. Lupin?” 

“My world has been turned upside down so many times in the last decade I can’t tell which way is up.” 

The ancient one looked very serious, “I am concerned that should a meeting be arranged between yourself and Harry’s new parents that you would not take the truth well.” 

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed but I’m a wizard who is currently attending University, muggle University mind, and I’m learning a lot of new things that I didn’t know were possible. Not to mention I have an alleged ‘ _Myth_ ’ sitting in my kitchen having a cuppa with me.” 

The silence stretched for a long while, the only sounds were from the traffic outside and the occasional television in one of Remus’ neighbors' flats. He was just starting to think he’d blown his only chance at getting to see Harry again when the Ancient One spoke again.

“Mr. Lupin, what do you know of extraterrestrials?” 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think! How many stuffed animals do you think Harris has now? 
> 
> Thank you for reading!
> 
> Edit: some small punctuation mistakes, a date, and a paragraph or two that I missed separating.


	15. Unplanned Pops

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harris pops into an unlikely place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning for death mentioned.

Harris bounced up and down in his seat as Uncle Marty had just informed him that another M Ship was about to come in. They were on Haven for the yearly meeting again, and to keep him occupied his Daddy had sent him with Marty to watch the ships come in. He had to behave or return to the big house where he couldn’t see the ships land.

The ship coming in was black, almost the same color as the sky, he knew this because Jorgen had taught him. He’d surprised his Mama when he told her her coat was the same color as his eyes. All black ships weren’t uncommon; he'd seen nine or five of them today already, he couldn’t decide how many but it was a lot. He’d already seen Captain Mainframe, they'd pinched his cheeks and cooed at him before Uncle Marty saved him. He wondered who would be on this ship? Maybe Uncle Charlie, or Captain Yondu, he always had treats for him to munch on. Treats were his favorite food, except the bright yellow ones, those tasted like feet.

It was neither of them as a group of bright pink leather coats emerged from the ship. Harris didn’t know these Ravagers so he inched closer to Uncle Marty. Some of the others were grumpy, like Daddy when he hadn’t had his wake up drink all day. Some were scary grumpy and made him wish he’d brought Paddy with him for protection. Or that his Daddy or Mamma was there, he always felt safe with them.

“Martinex,” said a tall woman, dressed in all pink with hair that looked like it was alive and a flat grey face. She looked down at Harris, her almond-shaped eyes becoming slits.

“It’s still here, is it? I would have thought they’d be bored with it by now.”

“That’s enough.”

Harris jumped at the sound of Uncle Marty’s voice, he’d never heard it sound so mean. He could be hard and unmoving sometimes when Harris really wanted treats from the kitchen or to play with the controls on the bridge. But he’d never heard him be scary before. He started to wrap his arms around his knees, he wanted his Mama. She was on her ship though with Luta and hadn’t gotten there yet. He wished she’d hurry up.

“You’ve never known the Ogord’s to keep anything useless for more than a year, have you? Even Udonta showed talent before a year was out.”

Her voice was like one of those rare sweets that made Harris want to spit it out, not because it tasted bad but because it tasted too sweet. He curled in on himself more, trying to be unseen. He didn’t quite know what she was saying but he did know she didn’t like him.

“Last warning Avaen-dole, or I will report this to the Admiral,” Uncle Marty said.

Harris ducked his head thinking of his Mama, he could see her in her ship flying it towards the meeting place and he wanted to be there so badly his chest hurt. Then his insides felt squishy and twisted until he heard a loud ‘pop’ that coincided with him landing on a slightly softer surface. Then he heard a shriek.

His fear had him whipping his head around, screams were not a good thing on a Ravager ship, to find a pair of green eyes staring back at him.

“Mama?”

Stakar was not going to panic, there was no way wizards were behind his son just disappearing, none whatsoever. Who was he kidding, of course, the Terran wizards were behind this, Krugarr told him that they still hadn’t found Remus Lupin yet. It was in the realm of possibilities that he had managed to teleport Harris directly to him, perhaps by reversing the thing he’d done with the stuffed dragon he’d sent a year ago?

“Sir I swear he was right there, I was trying to get Avaen-dole to leave him alone, and then there was this loud ‘popping’ sound. I looked and he was gone.”

“I heard you the first time Martinex,” Stakar said, growling. He rubbed at his temples as pain started to build up in them and behind his eyes. He did not need a headache now.

“Did you check his locator?”

Martinex looked surprised, “he has a locator?”

“Yes,” he answered, exasperated, “he’s got on in his shoe and one sewn into the cording on his jumpsuit.”

“I’ll check it now.”

Stakar’s wrist com went off, he glanced down at it and let out a groan, prompting Martinex to look up with a question on his face. Stakar had no idea how he was going to explain to Aleta that he’d lost their child, and by no fault of his own either. He hoped. He hit the answer button.

“Stakar Ogord,” she spat at him.

He wondered if this was his time to join his brethren in the beyond. She seemed angry enough to kill him through the holo projection. He honestly wasn’t sure what would be worse, enduring her wrath or just letting her kill him to end his suffering.

“Yes, dear?”

“Don’t give me that. I want to know how and why our son suddenly appeared in my lap, on my ship, two-thousand clicks away from Haven?”

Her voice had risen with every word until she was practically screaming at him. Even Martinex was wincing. Stakar wanted to do hand to hand combat with a Kree warrior weaponless at this point. She was worked up enough that he wouldn’t get to logically explain anything to her, even if it was something she agreed with him on. Not until she calmed down.

“Magic?” He said, having no other explanation.

She cocked her head on the little display, face looking deadly, “he said that he was scared and wanted me, then he was here.”

“He was with Marty watching ships, but another Captain was being surly with him. He might have gotten scared.”

Before Aleta could reply another voice was heard, “Mama, cookie fo’ you.”

Aleta turned away from the camera, looking down as her demeanor shifted, “thank you, Harris, would you like to see Da?”

She hoisted him up onto her lap so that he was in view of the camera, “Da! I popped.”

Stakar heard a snort from across the desk and decided to leave crumbs of some sort in the man's bed before the meetings were over.

“Harris you scared me,” he said, pulling a sad face.

“Wha?”

“I thought I’d lost you. You can’t just pop places without telling a grown-up first.”

Aleta looked like she was gaining steam again. She obviously didn’t want him popping anywhere ever again. Harris seemed oblivious to the undertones of his parents' discussion though.

“Tay.”

“We will be there in twenty,” Aleta said, her voice strained into something civil.

Stakar nodded, “I’ll be waiting.”

The call ended and Martinex burst out laughing.

“Stop it. We are both practically in her brigg now.”

“Popping,” he sputtered, “he can pop from one place to another. Do you know how valuable that is?”

“He may not want to be a Ravager Marty,” Stakar said, leaning back in his seat. He had twenty minutes to prepare for the death glares he would be receiving. No doubt Aleta’s crew was not happy to have a surprise male on board.

“He’s a mini you sir, right down to his devotion to Aleta. If he’s not a Ravager I’ll eat my socks.”

Stakar glared at him, “go and tell Dr. Karr that I need to see him. Dismissed.

He didn’t pay any attention to his now sulking first mate, opting to put a hand over his eyes. He needed something to downplay the percussion in his head for the next hour. Martinex laughing at his situation wasn’t that something.

Harris had arrived back just in time for lunch and his nap. Aleta had cooled some by the time he finally fell asleep. They were in their bedroom with the lights off, only a small amount of light was creeping through where the curtains joined. Stakar was trying to stave off a headache but it looked like he was going to lose on that front.

“I’m sorry I lost it on you.”

Stakar slowly raised his eyebrows, not even attempting to open his eyes. Or speak for that matter. Even with the painkillers from Karr, he was near incapacitated.

“Having Harris just appear out of nowhere was unsettling.”

She had slowed her words as if trying to describe what she’d been feeling when she’d called him. Trying to find the right words so that he’d understand. Though it hurt he worked his jaw open just enough to speak in their native language, which didn’t need as much jaw movement as Xandarian did.

“I was scared too.”

She said nothing so he continued, “I thought he’d been taken somehow. He was right next to Marty I-”

It was too painful to talk, every word reverberating in his head as he tried.

“Rest,” she said, softly, “I’ll help Marty handle stuff. Keep Harris occupied.”

“Marty laughed at me,” he said, just barely managing to get the words out.

“You shouldn’t have told me that,” she said, sighing as he felt the blankets on their bed be pulled up to his shoulders, “now I’ll have to do something about it.”

He wasn’t sure if his face had winced or smiled in response but either would have conveyed how he felt about the situation. He didn’t hear her leave, but he knew she had gone before he drifted off to sleep.

Aleta watched as the other Captains filed out of the meeting room. Some were disgruntled and ready to take flight once more. While their counterparts were well rested from the extra time off. Stakar’s headache had lasted a full week. Which caused problems not only for the fleet but for Harris too.

The now three-year-old couldn’t understand why he couldn’t see his Daddy, or why when he did that Daddy couldn’t come to play. He was still too young she supposed.

Aleta had done her best to expedite what she could of the meetings, but most of them had to be done by Stakar. Thankfully once he was back on his feet he powered through most of the meetings and had them done in a fraction of the time he normally did.

There was only one more meeting, and that one would be more enjoyable than all the others. It would be just the seven of them talking about any new developments that should be dealt with, and doling out assignments.

They had all gathered around a small wooden table that sat in the middle of the large stadium-sized meeting room. Each of them had their own chairs and were in tight quarters seeing as they’d had to add a seventh in the last few years. Aleta didn’t mind, it was cozy being amongst family like this. Though not for an extended amount of time mind you.

She was listening to the conversation with only half an ear as the last of the other Captains filed out. Only the top seven would be needed for this meeting. She only started paying attention when she heard her name.

“So he just popped into Aleta’s lap?” Asked Mainframe, their head on a swivel between Martinex, Stakar, and herself.

“Yeah, shocked me good,” Aleta replied, “I don’t think the bridge crew knew what to do about it. I’m not easily shocked.”

“No, you just hide it better,” said Charlie, who gave her a knowing wink.

“Go jump a black hole,” Aleta said, fondly.

“But it's Yondus turn.” He said, protesting with a smile.

“Don’t drag me inta this,” Yondu said, looking to get out of dodge.

Krugarr joined in with an emoticon of Yondu running away and hiding behind the Lem’s shoulder.

“Ya take that back Krugarr.”

“Alright,” Stakar said, trying to get some sort of order back as he sat down in his chair at the round table. He’d been checking the panels to make sure that it was only them in the room, before locking everyone else out.

“Let's get this done, I want a nice night to hang out with everyone.”

“Are we going to talk about what happened with Harris?” Asked Mainframe.

Stakar sighed, she could tell that he didn’t want to acknowledge what had happened. There was no getting around it seeing as it was a security breach.

“Someone sent Harris a birthday present from Terra via magic, Krugarr is looking into the person.”

Krugarr gave a nod to confirm this before Stakar plunged forward with the rest of the meeting. Aleta having nothing new to report leaned back in her chair and counted the tiles on the ceiling. She knew the number by heart but it was something to do until her attention was needed. She’d be spending the next few months with Stakar and Harris, she was sure that if something important came up that he’d fill her in on it later.

“So now all we have to do is divide up the menial tasks.”

Aleta listened as the others volunteered to take on jobs but there was one that she was most interested in and no one else took it.

“I’ll take the Terra run,” she said.

Surprised looks were aimed at her. She didn’t care, she wanted to do the run, granted it would be a few months before she did it. The polar caps there were in the summer season and it wouldn't be good to pull from them as it would cause the glaciers to become unstable. The last thing they wanted was to dismantle the ecosystem that they relied on.

“Are you sure Aleta?” Stakar asked, his tone uneasy.

“I have no intention of bringing back another kid if that’s what you mean,” she said, giving him a sideways glance, “besides, might find something useful while I’m there.”

When no one else offered to take the job from her Stakar dismissed them, if they wanted to leave that was. Everyone but Martinex and Krugarr had left before Stakar said anything.

“Leta-”

“I just want to do some looking around. What’s the harm, no one will see me.”

Krugarr held up his hands, ‘we have not found this Remus Lupin, nor have we managed to locate any new information on Voldemort. While I don’t think it would be dangerous for you to do the run, poking around might draw unwanted attention.’

She looked over at Stakar, “I wanted to get some kids books, toys, things like that. He needs to know the culture a little before he goes to school there. I hadn’t thought about Lupin.”

In truth, she hadn’t. If he was a non-threat then she might observe from a distance now that Krugarr had put the idea in her head. But as long as he was nothing of consequence she’d leave him be.

“You’ve got someone looking for him still, yes?” Stakar asked.

Krugarr nodded, ‘yes but they’re having a hard time finding him. He seems to have vanished from the Terran wizarding world completely. Though-’

He paused looking between the trio that was watching him, ‘whispers have been heard. They are trying to be as covert as possible. We don’t want certain people finding out we are looking for him. They might figure out that it’s connected to Harris.’

“What whispers,” asked Aleta.

‘Lupin was a friend of one James Potter-’

“That was Harris' birth father,” Stakar murmured to Martinex, Aleta guessed that the other man wasn’t up to speed on all the details.

‘Yes, and James had two other friends besides, one that was more like his brother than a friend. A Sirius Black and the other was Peter Pettigrew. The latter is dead and the former is in prison for betraying James and his wife to Voldemort.’

Aleta kept her gaze on Krugarr’s hands as they slowed. Betrayal was not something that she or Stakar took lightly. Whenever it had occurred in the past the wounds never quite healed.

“What does that have to do with Lupin?”

‘Perhaps nothing, but he’s just lost his closest friends and now has disappeared. I’m concerned that they may not find him.’

Aleta swallowed, but the saliva didn’t want to go down. It was evident to her what Krugarr was hinting at. A glance at Stakar told her that he had gotten the message too if his grim face was anything to go by. Lupin might not be a problem at all if he too was dead.

“We will wait on you then,” Stakar said.

Krugarr gave a short bow before taking his leave of the room. The trio that remained simply looked at each other not wanting to break the silence concerning what had just been discussed.

For Aleta, it painted a picture of a lonely man. One who might be harmless and just wanted to send his friend’s now orphaned son a gift. He could be useful.

Their silence was broken when a young voice echoed off the walls above them.

“Mama, Da, Mawwieee!”

Aleta allowed herself to smile as she looked up, Harris was being firmly grasped by Luta as he attempted to lean over the first deck’s railing. Luta looked terrified and Aleta made a mental note not to leave Harris in her care for too long. After this week she was sure that her first mate never wanted to deal with a toddler ever again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think! Or if you've got theories. :) Thank you for reading!
> 
> Let me know if there are any errors, I'm posting this with a headache and might have missed something. 
> 
> This takes place before the scene with Lupin at the end of last chapter. I made an error with the date there and have corrected it it should be taking place at the end of 1993 not 1994.


	16. Three Knives and A Picture

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Remus is baaaack! It's a slow night at the pub but who is the mystery woman at the end of the bar?

February 1984

“I’ve got a knife up my sleeve, another in my boot, and one in my jacket, unless you want to lose your manhood you should go back to your friends.”

Remus’ ears perked up as he came out to the front of the bar. He’d just arrived back from his break and was relieving Simon for the rest of the night. He’d had his share of rowdy customers but a threatened castration was definitely a new one. He chanced a side look to where the threat had come from.

A woman dressed in a black jumper, with her hair obscuring part of her face, was seated at the end of the bar. She must have come in while he was on break, he would have remembered her if she’d arrived before that. He turned his body just enough that the semi regular cad would know that he’d caught the bar tender’s attention. Wisely the man backed off, tail between his legs. The mystery woman returned to her drink ignoring the man she’d just sent packing.

He let his gaze linger a bit longer, he’d seen all types in the pub since he’d started working here. He liked getting to know the regulars, and meeting the people who just wandered in, sometimes on dull shifts or if he was particularly bored he’d entertain himself by imagining what they did in their real life, giving each of them an intricate background all leading up to them arriving in the pub. This mystery woman seemed to fit into the latter as she sipped her drink, and his mind started to salivate over what her story was. He turned away when she gave a small smile in his direction as she set her drink down, his ears burning. Thankfully fate seemed to be looking out for him and provided him with a distraction, though not exactly a welcome one.

“Remus!”

He turned just in time to see one of the regulars and fix a smile on his face. David was one of the loudest patrons he had, not to mention one of the most disgusting too. In real life he’d have avoided him at all costs. But at his job it paid to pretend to be the man’s best friend and confidant. So he put on a smile and prepared for what was going to be a boring conversation about the man’s life.

About an hour later he approached the woman, Knife Lady as he’d taken to calling her, with a fruity drink in his hand. As he’d listened to David talk he’d dreamt up the most thrilling backstory for her. She was either retired military, or an ex spy. Her poise, confidence, and ability to blend into the background had led him to this idea. He imagined that she would not tell him her name, even if he were to ask it. She’d probably give him a false one, just to be safe if he did. She might even order something close to what James Bond drank. Which the drink currently in his hand was not even close.

A well dressed man had come into the pub about ten minutes ago. Remus had seen him enough to know that he was either a banker, solicitor, or an experienced con-artist. Dale said the solicitor idea was probably the closest. The man’s whole appearance screamed that he had money. Remus had watched the man strut around the room, eyes roving over the various female patrons, hunting for his next fling, when his eyes landed on Knife Lady.

He then made his way to the bar and requested a drink for himself, and one for the aforementioned Lady. For a split second Remus had thought about warning the man off. But as David had been distracted by the newcomer, he took the opportunity to escape from the man for a little while and watch how this played out.

He almost felt bad for her as he approached, he could feel the man’s eyes on his back as he set the drink down in her line of sight. To his surprise she barely glanced up from a book that had seemingly been produced out of nowhere.

“Take it back,” she said, with the same authority she had threatened the other man with.

“Yes, ma’am.” Remus said, trying to squash the smile on his face.

Quickly he removed the drink and left her to her book. He walked back to the gent who’d ordered her the drink, and sat it in front of him.

“Sorry, she didn’t want it.”

“Try again, and don’t take no for an answer this time.”

Gritting his teeth and forcing a smile onto his face Remus picked up the drink once more. Wondering if this was how Jame’s owl had felt when he and Lily had been fighting over something stupid when they’d still been at school. The poor thing had to fly back and forth between the couple before Lily finally gave up and took the missive from it. Unlike the owl, who had an easy escape, Remus had to remain professional about this transaction and hope he came out in one piece.

This time she looked up when he sat the drink in front of her.

“Who has the hearing problem?” She asked, glaring at the offending drink.

“The gentleman at the far end of the bar Ma’am,” Remus said, gesturing in the man’s direction, “he would like you to accept this as a thanks for gracing our Earth with your very presence.”

She arched an eyebrow, “he said that did he, he looks like the type of man that cares more about his own appearance and things than a woman’s heart?”

Remus couldn’t help but break into a smile, “I’m sure he just wants a fling, but can’t blame me for trying can you?”

She snorted, before glancing back at the man who was watching them intently. Turning back to Remus she asked, “what’s that _chefs surprise_ on the board?”

“That? It’s whatever the chef wants it to be. He’s got a running gag of making dishes out of some of the grossest looking things at the market and serving it for that dish. We warn people that it could be anything before they order it. Most are good sports about whatever he sends out.”

“Do you know what it is for today?” she asked, glancing over at the man again who looked like he was becoming impatient.

“I do.”

“Do you think my admirer would enjoy it?”

No. No Remus did not think the man would enjoy stuffed bull testicals served on greens. But it was a slow night and he was sure that the chef was chomping at the bit to make up another surprise plate. Remus himself wasn’t about to discourage the lady from her quest as it might turn out to be a funny story he could tell in class.  
“I don’t believe so.”

“Are you always this diplomatic?” She asked him.

“Ah no, I do try though.”

She chuckled, “please order the _chef's surprise_ and send it to him. With compliments from my husband. If he refuses it, bring it to me and I’ll see what I can do with it.”

Her hair shifted just enough away from her face for Remus to see a hairline silvery scar that ran from her temple to her jaw. Barely noticeable if she were to wear makeup but as he was self conscious about his own scars he tended to notice when others had them. Hers seemed to be neat though, not rough like his own. Perhaps she’d had her face redone to hide her identity?

“It will be my pleasure ma’am.”

As he walked away to place the order, his mind thought about her saying she had a husband. That was a bit of a fly in the ointment for his spy theory. But maybe she’d made it up so that the posh wanker would leave her alone.

When he returned with the plater, he noted that the drink in front of Knife Lady was untouched, and that Mr. Posh hadn’t moved from his seat at the bar. His plastic face still on just in case she gave him an opening. But he’d somehow gotten caught up in David’s woes and was stuck. He couldn’t approach Knife Lady without her motining to him, or accepting the drink he’d sent. That was how he was, which Remus didn’t understand about the man. Plenty of guys still tried to sweet talk girls who refused drinks from them, but this guy never did. Though this one seemed to be desperate to have Knife Lady’s attention. He set the platter down in all its glory, in front of Mr. Posh.

“I didn’t order this,” he said, crossly glaring at the orbs on the platter in disgust.

“It’s a compliment from the lady down the bar’s husband.”

The man’s face started to go red and he examined the platter in front of him, “what is this?”

“Stuffed Bull testicals.”

He turned green before paying his bill and rushing out the door. David started laughing at the man before turning towards the Knife lady and saluting her with his drink.

Remus waited until the man had left the pub before joining David in his mirth. He then picked up the platter and delivered it to Knife Lady. She looked up from her book again, which he now saw was on the history of the British Isles. He’d read the book himself when in primary school. Why would she be reading this book, she looked a bit old to not have read it in school herself. Her accent was that of an American though so perhaps they didn’t read that book across the sea.

“What a surprise,” she said, “I’m sure I’ll enjoy this. The drink is too sweet for my taste though.”

Remus nodded and took the offending drink away, not looking back. He didn’t fancy watching anyone eat todays _chef’s surprise_.Though he had to admit this was the first time he’d really laughed since 1981, and it felt good.

Last call had been made and it was time to close up for the night. Remus had started putting chairs on top of tables that were already cleaned off while Dale worked at getting the last few stragglers out. He’d missed one though as Remus could see her sitting at the back table. Knife Lady was still alone, her book now closed and glass empty. She was leaned back in her chair watching him with interest as he continued his work.

She had moved to a different seat, after the incident with the uppity gent. He hadn’t noticed that she hadn’t left until he caught a glimpse of her about thirty minutes ago. That she was still hanging around was odd to him. Well not odd in the traditional sense. He’d had women hang around to see if he wanted to ‘hang out’ at their place after he’d finished work. He rarely took any of them up on that offer. He didn’t think she was going to be one of those though, not after he’d witnessed her dealing with not one but two better looking men than himself.

As he got closer to where she was sitting Dale came back in, “Simon and I’ve got the kitchen tonight, you go on home when you’re done out here.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, I know you’ve got studies to take care of in the morning. Night Remus.”

He returned to his work after returning the words to his boss, when he noticed that Knife Lady had taken a new interest in him. A small smile was now flirting with the corners of her lips. He was close enough now to speak to her without drawing too much attention to them.

“Closing up for the night, do you need help finding the door?”

She smiled, “no I believe I found what I’ve been looking for.”

“Have you?”

“Yes Remus Lupin,” she pulled out something from her jacket, thankfully not a knife, “I believe I have.”

She held it out to him, at first he thought it was a square piece of paper, but when he took it in his hand he could tell it wasn’t. It was too thick to be paper, and too smooth to be parchment. He turned his attention to it and saw a young boy with messy black hair, green eyes, holding a black dragon with an orange tummy. His heart nearly stopped, it had to be Harry.

He whipped his head up, but the woman was gone. His eyes searched the room frantically but it was as if she’d just vanished into thin air. She didn’t apparate, he would have known if she were magical. Even silent apparition left a crackling feeling in the air that the lycanthropy senses would have picked up on.

The Ancient One hadn’t mentioned super speed being a skill set of Harry’s new parents, or any of their friends. Granted she didn’t say much about them at all, what with having to explain that exterestial’s were a thing, she’d been a bit cagy about them as individuals now that he thought about it. When his eyes went back to the booth she’d been sitting at he noticed that she’d left something behind. A small box.

He approached the booth and reached out his hand to carefully take the box when he heard the door to the kitchen open.

“Lupin, I’m sorry but Simon’s ditched me, can you stay and help me out?” Dale said, calling out from the kitchen.

Remus snatched the box and pocketed it and the picture of Harry, “Sure Dale I’ll just finish up here real quick.”

March brought many things, wind, rain, Remus’ birthday, but no sign of Knife Lady. Who he now suspected of Harry’s new mum, or adopted mum, he wasn’t sure what to call the woman who had adopted Harry.

The night he’d met her he had rushed home to open up the box she’d left. He was disappointed to find some sort of gadget inside that looked almost like a large square wrist watch, and a note with childlike handwriting, ‘ _I’ll call you_ ’.

For the rest of the month he kept it close, he’d tried wearing it on his wrist only for people to ask him about it. So he opted to keep it in his pocket or school bag. Nothing had happened with it though.

The picture of Harry had gone up on his fridge. He tended to study it, taking in every line and shadow. Trying to see if there was something within it that could tell him where he was hidden away. It had become so much more than simply wanting to send him gifts. He now wanted, needed, to make sure he was safe. He owed it to James and Lily, and in some respects Peter, who had all given their lives to protect him.

Even though he had been told that Harry was with people who loved and cared for him. But Remus had grown tired of people telling him what to believe. Thus he had worked himself into a fine state, when a letter from his old headmaster asked him to tea on his birthday. Which was on top of an approaching full moon and a volley of tests. He nearly declined but seeing as he was trying to fly under the headmaster’s radar he felt he had no choice but to accept the invitation. The timing made him uneasy though, it coincided too closely with Knife Lady’s appearance for him to think it was simply a coincidence.

He wasn’t sure what his old headmaster wanted. He hadn’t heard from him in about two years, he hadn’t even sent condolences when Remus’ Mother died. A couple of his other professors and a few friends had. Some of them had kept in sporadic touch with him since the war had ended but as he withdrew from the wizarding world in search of work. He only got the occasional letter from a surviving friend. No one wanted to keep an eye on the werewolf it seemed, not even Dumbledore had checked in on him, until now.

He’d made up excuses for this, mostly that the man still had a school to run, Harry to keep an eye on, and all his various other positions to keep up with. It made for a busy life from Remus’ perspective. So why was Dumbledore bothering with him?

As Remus learned more about teaching in the muggle world, he started looking back on his own education. He didn’t like what he saw, if he were perfectly honest. While his education in magic was next to none, it had been more about what he had striven for rather than what was taught. By muggle standards, the three best classes in Hogwarts during his time there had been transfiguration, charms, and ancient runes. Potions was alright, but only if you had a natural talent or inclination for it, herbology and astrology too. Don’t get him started on DADA, because the teachers changed every year and there was no cohesive curriculum for it made it the candidate for the worst taught subject at the school.

His main issue was that while they’d been prepared for the wizarding world, they were sorely lacking in preparation for the muggle world. Even muggleborns, by the time they graduated, were left with almost no way to make their way in either world. Unless they had vast amounts of talent or good connections they had to settle for a subpar jobs in the wizarding world. Because how could they explain that their secondary schooling didn’t help them prepare a decent CV in the muggle world?

Remus had run into a few issues himself, and he’d studied muggle subjects over the summer with his Mum. Only his Uncle’s connections had assisted him in getting to the place he was now. Just like if he’d been born in the wizarding world and had never been bitten.

Dumbledore also exhibited some, less than grand actions. Remus didn’t think the man had done anything untoward, but he had to admit the man had a manipulative streak. Teachers were supposed to mold and shape their students, to help them be functioning adults. But Dumbledore’s actions seemed like he only cared to shape a select few, such as Remus himself. How many headmasters paid a visit to an eight year old’s home when the child wasn’t even old enough to attend their school yet?

And that was just him, why had the man ignored the antics of James and Sirius’ bullying? Remus couldn’t deny that he too was at fault in not trying to stop them, but some days it was just easier to go along with them than to object to them. He had tried apologizing to Severus Snape after they graduated only to have been rebuffed. But shouldn’t Dumbledore have seen that Snape had been targeted? Why hadn’t he stopped all four of them?

So many things were shoved under the various rugs and behind tapestries at Hogwarts that Remus was surprised that students got any learning done.

So it was with caution that Remus put on his older wizarding clothes to attend the tea. He didn’t want his former headmaster to know that he was finding his way in the Muggle world. It just didn’t seem like a good idea, and if the wrong person found out they could make it near impossible for Remus to find work even if he did finish his schooling.

He cast a glance at the picture of Harry on his fridge before he left. The grinning face giving him courage, at least he knew that he might be hearing from his new parents in the near future. With a twist and a pop he appeared out of his London flat heading for the town of Hogsmeade.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We have contact. :) 
> 
> Thank you for reading! Let me know what you thought in the comments it makes my day to see them. 
> 
> How do you think tea with Albus is going to go?
> 
> (If anyone would like to give a constructive critic I'd be willing to bite the bullet and listen. If not that's fine too)


	17. Talking and Lying

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Albus Dumbledore, Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorcerer, Chief Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, Headmaster of Hogwarts Invites you to tea on the tenth of March, 1984 at four o'clock.

Albus Dumbledore slipped the last few parchments he’d been working with into a drawer of his desk. Remus would be here soon and he was sure that his former student would want to see the paperwork that came with being headmaster.

He had invited the young man to tea to check on him for a few reasons. The most prominent being he highly doubted that anyone else was keeping track of the werewolf. He felt guilty for not doing it sooner, but one thing after another stayed his invitation. What with his three prominent positions he had a lot on his plate. This being the first opportunity he had managed to clear his schedule long enough to meet with Remus. When he’d casually asked people who’d been around Remus during the war no one had heard from him recently. Which had caused him no end of worry.

He knew that losing one’s support structure, or friends that were close enough to be family could take a toll on a person to the point they might consider all their options. Losing Remus in any capacity was not an option. The man was far too important, not only in Dumbledore’s plans for young Harry but to the world in general. He was after all the first werewolf to have attended Hogwarts post-bite. Albus needed him to be somewhat successful. But if the man gave in to his instincts, or drowned in his depression it would tarnish the investment Albus had put into him. The only things that had assured Albus that his former student was still alive were the letters and packages that he sent to Harry.

Harry received many letters and packages, mostly from fans and the odd generous person who wished to, as one writer put it “ _ease the pain of losing one's parents_ ”. Albus was collecting the fan mail and putting it in a vault at Gringotts for safekeeping. The time would come for Harry to realize his mass amount of fame. He was too young now. Such fame would undoubtedly influence him if he were exposed to it too soon. He would come into contact with it as soon as he entered Diagon alley in seven years. But after a normal life with his aunt, Albus was hoping it would all prove to be too much for him. He wanted Harry to be humble and not seek the light of fame. This way he’d be open to Albus’ guidance. After all, Harry's fame was only on par with his own, and he would need someone to help him traverse the pitfalls of the wizarding world. None of that mattered right this minute though. He still had years before young Harry would enter the wizarding world at large. Not to mention attend Hogwarts.

A knock sounded at his door. Albus smiled as his wards told him who was waiting to enter. He and Remus would have a nice chat over tea. Which would allow him to gauge how the man was doing and if he needed Albus to help him. It was all for Harry’s betterment that Remus should do well. He was, after all, the only surviving link to his parents.

“Come in.”

Remus entered the room. His clothes hung off him at an odd angle and had patches in the elbows of his jacket, everything he wore appeared to be at least a size too big for him. The man offered a warm smile just as he had when he’d been called into this very office for one reason or another.

“Headmaster, thank you for inviting me,” Remus said, a polite smile on his face.

“None of that Remus,” Albus said as he waved the man to a chair, “you are no longer a student, Albus will be just fine. Or Dumbledore if you must.”

Albus walked around his desk to join Remus, sitting in the chair opposite him. He did not see why they shouldn’t see each other as equals in this venture. With a wave of his wand, a garishly decorated tea set appeared floating gently between them. It was Albus’s favorite, not just because it incorporated all his favorite colors, but because it provided entertainment.

“Do you still take your tea with honey,” he asked, as he poured the tea into the cups.

Silence met his question causing him to look up at his guest.

“No, that was how my Mum took her tea.”

Albus could have kicked himself. That was yet another reason he was checking up on Remus. His mother had died not too long after the Potters, further adding to the man’s grief. If he was anything like himself, then it was most painful to be reminded of his loss.

“I’m sorry Remus-”

“It’s alright,” the man made a show of smiling, though it didn’t quite reach his eyes, “I will use whatever you have, I’m not picky.”

There was something in the way he’d said those words that alarmed Albus, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on why. Nor why Remus wasn’t looking at him directly. Could it be that the wizarding world had cowed him so much that he couldn’t look Albus in the eye?

“I did try to send a wreath, but I realized too late that it was a muggle service when I couldn’t find an address.”

Remus looked surprised as Albus offered a cup to him. As if he hadn’t expected such kindness.

“Thank you, the fact that you tried means a lot to me,” he said, quietly as he accepted the teacup.

After he’d made sure that Remus had gotten plenty of food onto a plate, he was far too thin for his liking, he wondered if perhaps he should introduce him to Molly Weasley sometime. She wouldn’t be able to resist taking the man under her wing. He’d gain a few pounds just by visiting for five minutes. He kept the conversation light, not wanting to confront the man just yet about his feelings or mental state. But when his plate was mostly empty he asked the all-important question.

“Why don’t you tell me what you’ve been up to? I was asking around and it seems you haven’t been around much.”

Remus swallowed a bit of tea, “I’ve been alright, I’ve got a nice job at the moment. I’ve got a nice place to stay too, it’s dry and warm. I can’t ask for much more than that.”

If that was his definition of alright then Albus was the son of a house elf.

“Have you sought out any further schooling? I would be happy to write you a recommendation if necessary.”

It seemed that he’d surprised Remus again. Albus had hoped that one of his brightest students would have already started the process of looking into furthering their education. But it seemed that Remus had not done so. Which disappointed Albus, while Remus’ future might not be as bright as James, Black, or even Peter’s futures could have been; he still could make a decent go of it.

“Not really,” he said cautiously, “I did look into some schools in the States. A few of them do take werewolves but only if they were turned in the States. No idea why, though it could be a pack thing. Greyback didn’t like anyone he didn’t turn, it caused some serious strife at times.”

Albus nodded in understanding. The States were at the best times odd. They restricted magical usage much more than their European counterparts, and the keeping and transportation of magical creatures. Yet they had, in his opinion, the best werewolf legislation in the world. There was even a committee that advocated on their behalf, and land set aside for those who wanted to form packs to stay. It was truly mind-blowing to Albus, he wished he could pick their brains about the matter. But he’d have to get acceptance of werewolves as people before he could make any progress here. Which by the looks of things was not likely to happen any time soon.

“I’d still be happy to ask for you. You have a great mind Remus, it would be a terrible thing to waste.”

Why wouldn’t he want to continue his education? That was odd, Remus had always thrown himself into his studies. There had to be an underlying reason. It wouldn’t bode well if Remus didn’t have some sort of accolades to show Harry when Albus eventually introduced him.

“How is Harry doing? Last I heard you had placed him in his new home.”

Albus took a large sip of tea before answering, “oh he’s doing well, growing as young children do.”

“Do you visit him often then?”

Albus took another sip of tea. He couldn’t ignore the earnest look in Remus’s eyes. He should have known that the boy would become something of an obsession for the man. After all, Harry was the only remaining piece of Remus’s old life.

“As I told you before, any contact from our world would only upset him.”

“I understand but he wouldn’t need to know about magic,” Remus’ eyes seemed to light up, “I’d only tell him I’m a distant cousin of James’ or something.”

Albus wished he were a less honorable man. He’d stand up and whisk them off to number four Privet drive and let Remus visit with young Harry. But he had given his word, they would not interfere until Harry was eleven years old.

“I’m sorry Remus but I promised that Harry could have a normal upbringing. That means no interference from us.”

Remus’ eyes narrowed, “Petunia. You sent him to Petunia. She hates magic, and she hated Lily almost as much.”

“Now Remus, seeing as you have no experience with siblings I can assure you that siblings go through times when they don’t get along. Even to the point where they declare hurtful things that they don’t mean.”

Remus stood up abruptly, “No Albus, you weren’t there. You weren’t at James and Lily’s wedding. All Lily had wanted was for her family to be there to celebrate with her. Petunia came but she and her git of a husband just sat there and glared at everyone. When Lily went over to thank them for coming her sister accused her of things that I won’t repeat. We had to hold James back to keep him from cursing them for five generations. Don’t you tell me that my ‘lack of experience’ is clouding my understanding of Petunia Dursley. When was the last time you checked on Harry?”

“I have someone watching, they will alert me to anything untoward,” Albus was starting to feel uneasy about Remus’ attitude.

“And you think that is good enough,” Remus asked, his voice taking on a dangerous tone.

“It is all I can do, Harry is now seen as a Muggleborn legally. We cannot interfere until he turns eleven.”

The younger man’s jaw dropped as he stared at Albus. He had to admit this wasn’t going well. Indeed it had been very hard to get Harry’s status changed to ‘Muggleborn’ rather than ‘Halfblood’ but it was for his protection. No one in the wizarding world would be looking for a Muggleborn. It worked well in hiding the boy and helping Albus in keeping his placement a secret. That it aided in his promise to Petunia was a bonus.

“You changed his blood status?” Remus whispered.

“It was for his protection Remus, I took no pleasure in doing it. But we have no idea what exactly happened to Voldemort. He could still be alive for all we know.”

He was quiet, looking everywhere but Albus’s face, “I’ve been sending Harry gifts, for his birthday, and Christmas. I’ve also sent along a letter explaining who I am and my intentions. The gifts always come back without the letters.”

“Ah,” Albus could see that he had worked it out on his own, “I have been sending the gifts back to you. I know they must have been expensive, but the letters I put into the vault I have set up for the rest of Harry’s fanmail.”

The look that overtook Remus’s face could have killed him if the proper spell was used. But thankfully Albus remained breathing. He had to make him see that this was all for Harry’s own good. If he couldn’t do that then Albus knew just the kind of trouble his guest could make for him if he put his mind to it.

Remus straightened up, “I’m sorry headmaster, but I need to be going. I’ll be late for work if I don’t leave now.”

“Remus,” Albus stood up, “I hope you can see that I’m doing everything I can to keep Harry safe. Please don’t do anything rash, we want the same thing.”

He turned to look at Albus with the same look he’d had just seconds before.

“And what might that be headmaster?”

“For Harry to grow up safe.”

Remus seemed to deflate a little bit, a sadness overcoming him. Indeed even Albus was feeling sad, this was not how he wanted their meeting to end.

“Thank you for tea Albus. I really must go, I can’t afford to lose this job.”

“Safe travels Remus,” Albus said, watching as he shuffled out the door again.

It was only after Hogwarts’ wards alerted him that he was gone that he thought to place a tracking charm on him. It would be destroyed by his transformation in a few days, but it would assure Albus that Remus wasn’t lining up to infect Harry. He stopped his thoughts right there. Shame creeping into his gut. He knew Remus would never do such a thing, he hated his Lycanthropy and didn’t want to inflict it upon anyone else. Albus himself had spent long hours assuring that he wouldn’t before accepting him into Hogwarts, then keeping an eye on him during his school years for the same reasons.

Perhaps he should write to the higher education institutions in the States to see if they’d make an exception for Remus. Then he’d be busy enough and not be underfoot to cause any problems with his plan for Harry’s upbringing. Yes, that would suit everyone just fine, Remus would have more opportunities in the States too. Then at the appropriate time, he could introduce the pair.

Albus smiled as he pulled out his wand and started summoning his stationary, already composing the letter. He would give Remus a glowing review, he’d be accepted, then he’d get Lyle to help him convince Remus to attend. After all the work Albus had gone to, he should be grateful for the opportunity at his feet. Yes, this would all work out perfectly.

The Starhawk, March 1, 1984

“Come on Fledge, Mama is gonna be here soon and you don’t want to be all dirty do you?”

Honestly, Stakar wouldn’t be surprised if the answer would be yes. Shelby and Harris had recently found an affinity for dirt, dust, and all things sticky. It was an effort to keep his son clean. One that he was currently losing.

It’s not that he minded the dirt, he just knew that if his son looked like every other space urchin that he would be stolen and taken. Stakar wasn’t about to let that happen. So keeping him clean was a must when off ship. Granted they weren’t leaving the ship today, but he didn’t want to get chewed out by Karr when they got to the medbay.

Aleta was joining them for Harris’ translator placement. Something that was sure to have the boy crying for her, and she was heading back this way from her Terra run anyway. Translator placements were done differently for every species. Most found it beneficial to insert them while the child was in their prime years of language learning so that they had a better chance of being bilingual. Stakar and Aleta didn’t get theirs until they were in their late thirties, making Stakar nearly dependent on the thing. Not very many studies were available on what age would be best for a Terran human, but they did know that prime language years were within the first five years of their lifespan.

Now if only Stakar could get his resident Terran to come down from his hidey-hole they’d be in business. He’d get a quick wash before his Mom arrived and with some luck, he’d be able to keep him clean until after the placement.

“Harrison, I’m not playing games you need to come down from there right now.”

The boy giggled, “no.”

He didn’t know what to say to that, on the one hand, he knew he couldn’t let his son talk to him like that. Not only would it make him less manageable, but it would weaken his standing with his crew. He had to be firm, he decided, loving but firm.

“Harrison, I’m going to count to three, if you’re not down by then you will be grounded.”

“No, Da I stay.”

He thought he might have heard a chuckle behind him, but Stakar ignored it.

“One,” he said, loudly hoping the boy would come out.

“Two.”

Not even a finger emerged.

“Three.”

Nothing happened. No child emerged from the crevice, and no one dared to move as all eyes were now on Stakar. He could feel the weight of them as he accepted defeat. He was going to have to be the bad guy. Steeling himself he climbed up to where the boy had hidden and reached in. His hand quickly landed on something soft.

“No! Da no!”

Harris was howling at him as he pulled the stuffed animal out into the light of the hanger. Patty was covered in dust and dirt. He could only imagine what his son would look like when he emerged. Which he did very quickly, climbing down the ladder after his Dad.

“Give back, not nice!” Harris said, reaching for his stuffed dog.

“Patty needs a bath Harris, and so do you.”

The boy was covered head to toe in grey industrial dust and dirt too. Which if not cleaned off of him would cause an infection later when they tried to put the translator in.

“Give!”

He now tried jumping for the toy, but Stakar moved it higher. He then swept up the boy with one arm holding him kicking and flailing at his side.

“Come on it’s bath time.”

“No!”

He continued screaming as they walked towards the cabin. Stakar gritted his teeth the entire time. Counting back from sixteen hundred to keep his cool. Such a fit wouldn’t have been tolerated when he was a child, or when he was raising the boy’s older siblings, and he wasn’t about to start tolerating it now. When he reached their quarters Harris had resorted to sobbing, Stakar placed the dog on a shelf before reaching to pull the three-year-old onto his hip. Which only renewed his tantrum. They got into the bathroom and he shut the door behind him, Harris was still too short to reach the door pad even if he stood on his tiptoes.

“Do you want bubbles in your bath,” Stakar asked, over his son’s screaming, “or no?”

He was ignored so Stakar decided to just run a bath and plop him in it. Clothes and all. This seemed to surprise Harris when he found himself in the tub in his clothes. Causing him to stop screaming.

“Blue soap or pink,” asked Stakar as he shed his coat and rolled up the sleeves of his jumpsuit.

“P-pink,” Harris said, sniffling.

“Alright, first let’s get your clothes off then we’ll get you clean.”

When he’d gotten Harris all clean and re-dressed the issue of Patty returned.

“Paddy?”

“No, he still needs his bath.”

Harris’s lip started to tremble, but he was cut off by the door opening. Aleta walked in carrying a large back with her.

“Mama, wan Paddy.”

“No,” Stakar said, firmly.

Aleta looked between them with raised eyebrows but didn’t respond otherwise for a minute.

“Da said no Harris.”

His little shoulders slumped.

“Why don’t you go give Mama a hug?” Stakar suggested.

“No.”

“Hard day?” Aleta asked, setting down the bag.

“Yes,” Stakar replied.

She walked over and observed his sleeves and shirt being damp, before giving him a hug that managed to keep from getting her wet.

“We need to talk,” she whispered in his ear.

“Mama, up?”

“That depends, are you going to be a good boy?”

He nodded and she reached down to pick him up. Stakar let out a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding and allowed himself to relax. Then he remembered that he now had to figure out how to ground a three-year-old.

Later that evening with Harris curled up between them, a bandage just under his right ear, they talked. Stakar wasn’t thrilled that she’d gone looking for Lupin. But after they’d gotten the intel that not only was he alive, but seemingly thriving, he had to admit he was curious. He listened intently as she relayed her evening of observation of the man, he sounded like a moral standup guy. The very thing Stakar couldn’t call himself with a straight face.

“Two different men hit on you?”

“You’re my husband, you don’t get to sound surprised about that.”

He shook his head, “I’m just glad you didn’t kill them.”

“I may have threatened one, but no one ended up dead.”

He sighed. They had more information about Lupin now. The question was what to do with it. Did they take a chance and trust that the man wasn’t lying or should they continue to watch?

“Do you want to approach him,” he asked.

“I don’t think that would be a bad idea.”

Stakar chewed the inside of his lip thoughtfully. He didn’t like the idea of her going in alone and stated as much.

“I’ll run it like an op, I doubt he’d notice and my girls could be right there to deal with him should there be an issue.”

“Wish I could go with you.”

She gave him a fond glance, “you’ve got a fleet to run. I’m more flexible.”

He smiled, “in more ways than one.”

“We have a child between us.”

“Yeah, but I could use a shower.”

Aleta chuckled, but it seemed that Harris could sense that his parents wanted to leave him on his own. He whimpered in his sleep, and they both looked down to make sure he didn’t wake. While the placement had gone well Stakar was sure that Dr. Karr was back on the boy's bad side again.

“Go ahead,” he said knowing that Harris would respond more to his movements than Aleta’s.

“I’ll stay here until he’s more stable.”

Aleta slipped out of bed, her gaze not leaving them, “you know, you’re a great Dad.”

She then leaned over and kissed him before slipping into the shower. Leaving him stunned in her wake. It had been ages since she’d told him that. Granted he’d only been parenting again for a couple of years now. But it still surprised him that she would compliment him in that way. Despite all his screw-ups. He smiled to himself as he started the slow but tried method of slipping out of his bed without waking Harris.

He might be a great Dad, but even he had his limits on how long he could resist his wife.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you guess who's lying? (Shouldn't be too hard) What do you think of Albus? Or the new information on where Remus's letters have been going? 
> 
> Thank you for reading!
> 
> The next chapter is one I've been working on for three weeks. I'm excited to post it next week!


	18. Happy Birthday Remus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Could the re-appearance of the Knife Lady make Remus's birthday a bit better?

March 1984

Remus had to apparate straight from Hogsmeade to work. He landed in a back alley before booking it to the side entrance that he knew Simon would have left open. He didn’t dare go in through the front door dressed like this. By getting in through the back he could at least hide his cloak and turn up his sleeves before heading out to do his shift. His luck seemed to have run out though as Dale spotted him trying to slip into the area where they left their personal items while they worked.

“Remus, what in the world are you wearing?”

“Oh,” Remus tried to think of something plausible to tell Dale, “um I have a girlfriend. She dressed me like this for a drawing, she’s into art.”

Dale guffawed at him, “whatever it takes then, ya?”

Remus forced a chuckle and nod before ducking into the room to deposit his cloak and any other articles of clothing that weren’t strictly necessary. Running his hands through his hair to make it appear that he didn’t just sprint to work he took several deep breaths. It was way too close to the moon for this he needed to calm down or he’d be in a surly mood all evening.

It had been everything Remus could do to keep from lashing out at Albus. Not only had the man overstepped his role. Re-routing mail for a minor that wasn’t legally his charge, what was he thinking? It was no wonder that his adoptive parents were only just getting in touch with him.

Out of habit, he slipped his hand into his pocket, only to find it empty. He had left the watch device home as he didn’t want to risk the magic at Hogwarts messing with the Muggle technology. He wondered if he could figure out how to use it and send them a message about Albus’s heavy-handedness. It was both a comfort and a concern that Albus didn’t know about Harry’s adoption, though.

“Ey Lupin, you comin’ out for your shift?”

“Yeah, just a second.”

He took another deep breath before letting it out slowly. He could deal with this later right now he had work to do. Work that needed him to be an easy-going guy, not a wizard out for his pound of flesh.

It was the same nearly every night when they closed down, last call was made, people paid their bills, and were escorted out before they locked down the place to clean. Remus was more tired than usual and was looking forward to embracing his bed. If he was a little less coordinated in getting all of the people out of the pub, then he would blame it on his state of exhaustion.

He’d nearly set all the chairs on their tables before he noticed her. Knife Lady was sitting in a corner booth watching him. He’d been in the front room all night and hadn’t seen her come in. Did this woman have the ability to just appear wherever she wanted?

Remus felt his mood start to break. He was tired of being played with like a yo-yo, just when he thought things were looking up someone would show up and bring him down. He stormed over to her, his lips set in a thin line.

“We’re closed.”

“I noticed,” she said, her face blank but her full attention was on him.

“You need to leave.”

“I called you but you didn’t answer.”

And just when he thought he couldn’t go down any further, the thin line he’d had on his temper snapped.

“It’s not like I know how to use the thing,” he said, snarling at her.

She didn’t say anything for a moment, “perhaps I’ve misjudged you?”

Ice seemed to move from her voice and wrap its way around his heart, quelling his anger slightly. Her tone conveyed what her words did not. Who was he? The easy-going guy behind the bar, or was he the angry visage before her? Remus took a deep breath and counted to ten before letting it out. He needed to stay in check, his getting to see Harry depended on it.

“Look, if you’re just going to disappear again and not tell me who you are or what’s going on then you might as well leave.”

The only sounds that Remus was able to hear were from Simon and Dale in the kitchen cleaning up. Only after a loud bang and cursing from Dale, was the silence breached.

“My name is Aleta,” she stuck out her hand.

“Remus,” he replied, taking her hand and shaking it.

“I want to talk with you-”

“Lupin, hurry up we’re almost done back here,” Simon shouted.

Remus sighed, “now’s not a good time, I can meet you in the alley behind the building, we can go back to my flat to talk.”

Aleta nodded before standing up, Remus followed her.

“I have to lock the door behind you,” he said before she got offended.

Once she was outside he locked up and hurried through the rest of his tasks, eager to meet with her and get one step closer to seeing Harry.

She was waiting for him when he stepped out the door, bidding his co-workers good night he walked in her direction and past her. Aleta followed him until he stopped to turn around. Dale and Simon were nowhere in sight.

“It’s a long walk to my flat, would you mind a taste of magical travel?”

He wouldn’t have offered if he wasn’t almost certain that this was Harry’s new Mum. He’d already shown her a bit of magic by way of sending Harry a toy anyway.

She hesitated for a moment before nodding. Remus put his arm around her and turned, it had been a bit since he’d done a double apparition but he thought he’d managed it just fine. When they landed in his flat Aleta went to her knees. For a moment he thought that she might have passed out. But her heavy breathing told him otherwise.

“Maybe we don’t do that again?” She said, gasping.

“Sorry, do you need a bucket or something?”

He knew that Muggles didn’t react well to apparition but hadn’t considered it being a problem for a nonhuman.

“No,” she said, her breathing starting to even out.

He set his things down quickly but by the time he turned back to Aleta she had managed to stand up. Albeit a bit shakily.

“Like being squeezed through a straw,” she said under her breath.

“Would you like some tea or coffee?” Remus offered.

“Tea.”

Remus slipped into his kitchen and started arranging what he would need. A few seconds passed as he gathered before she spoke again.

“You live by yourself?”

Remus looked over his shoulder as he filled up the kettle, he had almost expected to see her as close to him as The Ancient One had been. Aleta however was leaned against the archway that separated the kitchen from the living room of his flat. She seemed to be making a causal study of the room. Just like James used to do after he’d completed his Arrour training. Survival scanning, he’d called it.

“It’s just me,” he confirmed for her, “I’ve lived here for just under a year now.”

“No girlfriends?”

Remus sent her a saucy smile, “are you volunteering?”

“I’m married.”

“Ah yes, I was wondering about that.”

“He wouldn’t mind if I had a short fling with you,” she said, causing Remus to nearly drop the kettle onto the stove.

“Sorry?”

She chuckled, “I’m messing with you.”

“Well, I’ve had just about enough of that for one day, thanks. What else do you want to know?”

The silence stretched between them again. He was starting to get nervous, he didn’t know if he’d overstepped again in his aggression. Or if she was waiting him out, purposely keeping him off balance to see what he’d do. Whatever it was, it was working.

He gave in and asked another question, “you told me your name but I must admit I don’t know who you are.”

She straightened up her head coming up in an almost militaristic manner, “I’m Aleta Ogord, second Captain of the Ravager armada.”

“Second Captain?”

“The only rank above mine is Admiral and that is my husband’s rank, Stakar Ogord.”

“Oh,” he couldn’t think of any other reaction or words to say for a moment. His mind was already working overtime to put pieces in place and not offend the woman in front of him. This conversation seemed to have higher stakes than the one he’d had earlier that day. Aleta gave the impression that she was trained, if one were a captain in a space armada he would assume she was one of the best. And probably wouldn’t hesitate to take him down if not out should he say or do the wrong thing.

“So, what’s your relationship to Harry?”

She winced, “Harris, we call him Harris for linguistic reasons. Harry sounds awful in the three languages that are primarily used by my husband and myself. Not to mention the two most common languages in the galaxy,” she took a deep breath, “but to answer your question, I’m his Mother, making Stakar his Father.”

The kettle started wailing and Remus broke off his questions to tend to it. He grabbed the other things and set them on the kitchen table. Once they were seated across from each other he tried again.

“How’s Harry?” He asked, hoping for a neutral topic.

“Grounded.”

Remus looked at her trying to comprehend what she’d just said. She couldn’t mean that he was actually grounded, did she? He was far too young to be following in Jame’s footsteps just yet. He hoped.

“He didn’t obey when he was told to do something. On our ships that can be the difference between life and death; so Stakar grounded him, no cookies for a week. I’ve bet that he won't last three days before he’s in full  
meltdown.”

“Stakar or Harry?”

Her lips quirked up in a semblance of amusement, “that’s the real question, isn’t it?”

“He’ll learn,” Remus said, taking a sip of tea to buy him some time to wrap his head around what she’d just told him.

She gave a nod, “he’s very bright. He loves that dragon you sent, he named it Moony.”

“Did he?” He grinned, but the look in her eye told him she was about to get serious.

She set down the mug making it clink against the table, “look I understand that you want to be involved with him, but I don’t know you. I don’t trust you. When I took Harris into my family it was as good as making him a promise that I would protect him with my dying breath. My husband feels the same. We want what’s best for him. Even if it means keeping you away from him.”

Her eyes were boring into him as if searching for something. If he were to guess it was probably deceit she was looking for or anything that would give her reason to refuse his attempts at having a relationship with Harry.

“Why should we allow you to be around our son? We know you’re the only surviving member of Jame’s friend group, we also know he had a rather interesting taste in friends.”

“You’re referring to Sirius?”

“I am.”

“In James’ defense, Sirius convinced him that I was the traitor.”

Aleta cocked her head, “and how did he manage that?”

Remus took a deep breath, he was going to have to tell her everything. Right from the start. She hadn’t said as much but it was heavily implied.

“Answer one question for me first and I’ll tell you the whole story, from beginning to the end as I know it. How did you get Harris, the wizarding world is under the impression that he is with Lily’s sister?”

Aleta didn’t move, Remus was starting to think that the conversation was over and that he wouldn’t see Harry again.

“I found him after a rather rotund man left him under a bush in the middle of the autumn season. The cold didn’t bother me, but I knew that small children would be affected. I picked him up to see if I could get him home to his family. But there was a letter from Lily Potter addressed to me and she,” Aleta paused for a moment, to Remus it looked as if she were trying to choose her words carefully.

“She said she’d _seen_ me and Stakar raising Harris as our own. I-I lost my children years ago, and something in me just said that I should take him with me when I left. He’s been with us ever since then, being raised as we would our own children.”

Remus hung onto every word she said. Something about the explanation told him that an old wound had just been exposed to him. Remus nearly told her he was sorry for her loss, and yet he bit his tongue. That wasn’t why she’d told him that, she was telling him that so he would understand that she was capable of caring for Harry. The bit about Lily having _seen_ this was a surprise, if true it would certainly explain a few things about their Hogwarts days. A deal was a deal though, Aleta had answered his question, now he’d tell her his story.

“Alright. Then I guess I’ll start where I know to be my beginning when I was four-years-old-”

They were there several hours, several more cups of tea were had as Remus told her about the night he’d been bitten, of the Marauders, of James and Sirius, James and Lily, Peter, the war, and for some reason his own mother’s death and how that got him to where he was now. She didn’t interrupt unless she needed something clarified. Though those instances were few.

When he completed his oration they were out of tea and biscuits that his Aunt had sent him for his birthday. Aleta had seemed to relax, as if she’d warmed to him, having draped an arm over her chair’s back. She seemed lost in thought almost. He was sure that should she need it she would still be able to strike. Remus stood up and started to clean up the things he was done with and put the dishes in the sink.

“Do you think this Dumbledore is dangerous?”

_‘Well, that’s a question,_ ’ he thought. Remus shook his head, “I wouldn’t say he’s harmless but he’s not dangerous in the way Voldemort was.”

“He thinks that Harris is still living with his Aunt?”

“Yeah, he said he’s got someone watching the house.”

“You would think that they’d noticed the absence of a little boy,” she said.

Remus didn’t reply. She had a good point, it was odd that nothing had been reported as being a miss. Perhaps there was a logical reason for this, as logical as one could be with magic anyway. He was sure to find out sooner or later.

“This illness you have, does it spread only through bites?”

Remus cleared his throat, “bites on the full moon. I’d have to be completely transformed for it to occur.”

“What are you studying, you didn’t say.”

He turned away from the sink with a smile on his face, “Teaching and history. I’m hoping to become a professor one day. But I think I’ll only be able to function as a supply teacher.”

“Can you define _supply_? I think my translator messed up.”

Remus felt his eyebrows raise, “Supply, um well when the regular teacher can’t be there a supply teacher steps in and teaches the class for them.”

Aleta looked thoughtful for a moment, “will you be able to teach one age or many at once?”

“I’m sure I’ll have a favorite year but my classes are training me to be able to teach all years.”

She nodded, “I don’t know very much about the Terran school system, my own education was- lacking.”

“I’d be happy to explain it.”

“Not tonight, I have other more pressing questions to ask.”

Remus chuckled, “ask and I’ll do my best to answer them. Though some of the Muggle stuff I might not know.”

He noticed that she cringed again when he said _Muggle_.

“I think there’s another error, can you define Muggle for me?”

“It’s what the wizarding world calls people without magic,” he said, curious as to what her translator had said.

“Yeah, ok. I’ll try not to wince, do all of you use it?”

“Um yes, it’s a term of endearment on our part. I take it doesn't translate as such?”

“No, it translates more along the lines of a slur.”

“Oh,” Remus didn’t know what to say to that. But Aleta didn’t let him dwell on it for long.

“Does your magic world have a legal system?”

Remus gave an involuntary snort, “the ministry? Yes but they are a joke, it all boils down to if you have money or not. If you do you can simply bribe your way out of trouble.”

“It strikes me as odd,” she said, after a few seconds of thought, “that after being so much of a zealot against all that blood stuff you mentioned, that Black would turn back to it.”

“I’m sure he rationalized it somehow, he always did.”

“If what you say is true, and from my understanding, he was well off, why didn’t his family buy his way out after his _re-conversion_ to their beliefs?”

Remus paused, while Sirius’ father had been killed shortly before the war had ended, and Regulus not long before that Walburga Black was still alive. Why hadn’t she raised the dead trying to get her prodigal son out of Azkaban? The lack of trial didn’t sit right either, even Sirius’ cousin Bellatrix Lestrange had gotten one after torturing the Longbottoms. Why hadn’t she sung his praises for returning to the family values?

“It’s odd I’ll agree with you. But as I said Sirius’ family had disowned him.”

“How come Dumbledore placed Harris? In my experience, most societies have people separate from the school system to place orphans.”

Remus gave her a rueful smile, “Dumbledore is a bit of a high ranking celebrity if you will. He got his fame during the wizarding war before the last one by defeating the leader of the opposition. He then settled down as the transfiguration teacher at Hogwarts, until being promoted to the position of headmaster. During this time he was asked to be a part of several different political positions, but except for two, he’s declined all attempts to get into politics. He is one of our ambassadors to the International Confederation of Wizards, and is the chief Warlock of our Wizagamont.”

“So,” Aleta interrupted, “you would say he’s a very influential man?”

“I would say he’s very good at what he does and makes sure to have enough time to devote to each of his positions.”

Her eyes narrowed. As if she could see his words and was inspecting them.

“There you go being diplomatic again.”

“I’m trying to hold in my anger with him at the moment,” Remus said, honestly.

“Do tell.”

“I’ve been sending Harry presents ever since James and Lily died. But they kept returning, sans letters. I had tea with Dumbledore today and found out that he has been re-routing Harry’s mail to a vault for safekeeping. To keep it safe until Harris is old enough to handle the responsibility of fame. He felt sorry for me so he sent back the presents I’d mailed."

"Then how did we get Moony," she asked, a slight bit of confusion on her face.

"I finally snapped last July when the dragon came back and used an old spell that Lily and I had been using to send letters during the war, with a toy that Harris had levitated. The spell runs on residual magic which is normally left behind after a spell, charm, or potion is used. The first two leave a trace of the caster’s magic on it. Eventually, it degrades to the point of being unusable, but there was just enough of Harris’s residual magic left on the toy for me to send him his gift."

“Would you say Dumbledore likes to meddle?”

“Yes, at least where Harry is concerned. He changed his blood status in the ministry records.”

“I don’t understand, what does blood type have to do with his meddling? And why would he change it, it’s a medical necessity is it not?”

“Blood type and blood status are two different things. Harry’s bloodline is- was through the Potters who were purebloods-”

“Like Sirius Black?”

“Yes, now Lily was new blood, but the label that is used is Muggleborn. When she and James married and had Harry he was born a halfblood as he was half Pureblood and half Muggleborn. But, and a bit of this is guesswork from what Dumbledore did tell me, everyone knows Harry is a halfblood. The ministry has documents of all the Pureblood and Halfblood children as they have to be registered with them. Muggleborns have to do it upon acceptance to Hogwarts. They basically are filling out their ‘magical’ birth certificate. Lily had to do this, and when she did she listed her immediate family. As Harry is her son and she is dead his paperwork will show that his next of kin is Petunia Dursley. All the remaining death eaters would need is a smart halfblood, like me, and they could find Petunia and cause a lot of trouble for them.”

“I wouldn’t feel sorry for them,” Aleta muttered, “so you think he was trying to hide Harry’s paperwork in plain sight?”

“I can’t think of any other reason, aside from being able to claim magical guardianship-”

Remus trailed off his eyes widening at the half-spoken thought. Yes, the old coot could be crazy enough to try that. If James and Lily didn’t have a will stating who the magical guardian was it would be no contest, especially if they’d named Sirius in the role. He’d only seen Jame's will as he was drafting it, and he couldn’t recall any magical guardians being listed.

Aleta looked like she wanted to ask another question, but a beeping sound drew her attention to her wrist. It was nearly identical to the one that he’d been carrying around for the last few weeks.

“I have to go, my ship needs to be en route to a drop off in two days.”

As she started to stand Remus felt a surge of panic in his gut, “what about-”

“I’ll call you,” she said firmly, “I have to talk with Stakar first. The only reason I’m here again so soon is that he didn’t want to wait for me to do another polar run.”

“Would you be willing to take a few things for Harry with you?”

Aleta cocked her head, “are they small things?”

“Another stuffed animal and a book with some colors for him to draw with.”

“I don’t see why not.”

Remus pulled out his wand and summoned the gifts from the corner where he’d stashed them before handing them off to her. He opened his mouth to offer to appreciate her again but she spoke up before he could utter a word.

“I’ll go out the door this time if you don’t mind,” she said. She wasn’t smiling per se but she did look amused.

“Thank you,” he said.

“It might be a bit before you hear from us again, this system isn’t as developed as the rest of the galaxy, so trips to Terra are limited to a handful at best. But I will call you.”

Remus nodded, he still had so many questions. He had no choice but to let her leave, and hope for the best. Once she left the hallway he went to the window to watch the street, when she appeared there he watched her progress until she was out of sight. He didn’t know what he expected but the normality of her simply walking down the street as if she hadn’t a care in the world wasn’t it. He gave a tired smirk before closing the curtains, it was past time for him to sleep, and for the lone Marauder, sleep was a precious thing. Something that he was sure he would need if he was going to hit the magical law section of Flourish and Blotts before school tomorrow. He needed to figure out if there was a way for them to transfer guardianship to the Ogords before Harry turned eleven.

He went back to the kitchen to finish cleaning up, but he found his eyes returning to the picture on his fridge. Harry was safe, Harry was loved by Aleta and the mysterious Stakar, of this Remus was certain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think someone had a good birthday, don't you? 
> 
> Let me know your favorite part, or just drop a comment in place of a kudos. Questions are good too. :) 
> 
> Thank you for reading!


	19. Mutiny

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stakar ponders the conundrum of Remus Lupin one sleepless night before an annoyance strikes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Totally skippable warning: Fight scenes are not my thing, if I do them they are short.

Stakar was asleep but it wasn’t a peaceful sleep. He wasn’t supposed to have memories when he was sleeping, especially not this memory.

_They’d been hired to case a building on Oegopsida. Simple enough, they’d worked with this client before and had no issues with them. The planet was in turmoil, with factions splitting off and fighting with each other. No two willing to work with the other. When they needed things transported or traded, they called the Ravagers. Stakar did wonder why they had asked them to simply case the building rather than go in and get what they wanted from the inside. He supposed they wanted to make a political statement rather than simply steal something._

_They couldn’t get inside, there was way too much security for them to get in without staging a full-on assault._

_“Should we give them what we do have?” Asked Martinex._

_Stakar lowered the binoculars that he’d been using to try and see through the bricks of the windowless building. No dice, something was lining the stonework._

_“There’s not much more we can do,” He said._

_Martinex slipped away as Stakar continued to watch from their vantage point. It wasn’t the only sand covered hill in the area, but it was the closest. He hated sand with a passion, and he’d grown up on a planet composed of seventy percent sand. It got in places it didn’t need to and just when you thought it was all cleaned out of your clothes, it showed back up again._

_A long transport vehicle came down the road catching his attention. He watched its progress as it approached the compound. Wanting to see if there was any other info they could pass on. To his surprise when they pulled up at the gate people started exiting. No, not people, children. Children who could have been anywhere from a few months old, to late teens. He watched as they were escorted inside the building. A cold sensation was running up his spine and spread out to his limbs._

_“Captain,” Martinex was back, “they’ve advised that we clear the area, an airstrike is imminent.”_

Stakar woke from the dream in a cold sweat, breathing ragged, limbs trembling. Nightmares didn’t bother him. Reality did. The memory stopped short of what had happened in the seconds after that. The whistling of the missile, the sound of impact, the silence of the dead. All his doing, more or less. The weight of their blood was too much for him. He’d started to lose his mind over the following months.

Martinex had threatened to lead a mutiny against him if he didn’t sort himself out. He would have too if Krugarr hadn’t called and suggested the therapist that he had been seeing; who later switched him to a trauma therapist as Stakar was more messed up in his head than the first therapist had been willing to deal with.

‘Breath, breath in count to four,’ he told himself. Working to use the coping skills he’d learned for when he woke up like this. He breathed in and then held his breath while he counted to seven. Repeating the process several more times until his limbs stopped shaking, and the clamyness of his moist skin set in. He ran his hands through his hair, trying to settle his nerves.

A glance towards the side table next to his bed had him reaching for his wrist com, the time was too early for him to get up, he knew he wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep though. With a sigh, he set down the com and picked up the datapad that was next to it. After flipping through a few potential job messages, books he could read, or even some weird Xandarian soap opera, he settled on opening up the video Aleta had sent him.

He must have watched the footage of Lupin at least fifty times in the last two days since she’d sent it. Trying to make a decision about the man. It was easy to let absolute strangers onto his ships, after all, they could either work with the crew or get shoved out the airlock. He didn’t much care until they got into more prominent positions where he’d have to know their names.

But Lupin was different. He was an outsider with only two things to recommend him, his knowledge of the magic Harris had, and the ability to teach Harris the social skills he’d need in order to blend in on Terra. He seemed harmless, his illness aside, and seemed to genuinely care about Harris’s wellbeing. Which was more than he could say for some of the people that he brought on board his ship.

What’s more, Aleta had suggested having the man come and teach Harris when it was time for him to start his education. Entrusting such a thing to a man he only had a small amount of footage and information on was not how he wanted to vet any teachers for Harris. Just because Aleta had a bit of a crush on the mild-mannered man didn’t mean that Stakar needed to fall in line with her mindset. That there were no red flags about Lupin was itself a red flag. She was a good judge of character, better than himself, but she wasn’t infallible. She was also one to hold a grudge if she felt the need. Any other red flags that went up were not connected to Lupin, but to the information, he’d brought forth.

As Lily Potter had said in her letter, Albus Dumbledore was shaping up into a potential problem. From what Lupin had said in combination with what Lily had written, Stakar’s view of the old man was that he was a general that didn’t know when the war was over. He kept prepping for the next battle, the next war, the next time someone close to him would die. Stakar had seen those types, they were either assets or arrogant. The former was the easiest to work with, they just needed to know that it was ok to quit. Like Charlie; some would take it in stride or they’d swing to the other end of the spectrum like his _Father-in-law_ obsessed with finding or creating the ‘ _ultimate solution_ ’ to the _‘war_ ’.

Without meeting the man there was no way for Stakar to know where he fell. If he was willing to listen and work with others, or if he relied on only his own council. Both potentially dangerous, but one was easier to work with for Stakar’s purposes. If they had a common goal in mind, then it might be possible for them to get the old man to lay off and let Stakar and Aleta make the decisions for Harris’s wellbeing. Dumbledore could keep his war, they just wanted to keep their son alive.

A small sound from the direction of the closet had him look up from the datapad.

“Da?”

Harris stood in the doorway clutching the stuffed Bildgesnipe that Charlie had brought with him the last time he’d been by.

“What’s wrong Fledge?”

“Sleep bad.”

Stakar bit his lip, “did you have a bad dream?”

A jerky nod was his reply, “come on you can sleep with me. I won’t let any monsters get you.”

“Pwammis?”

Stakar took his right hand and thumped his chest twice, “on Ravager honor.”

That was all the boy needed before he nearly flew into the bed with his Dad. Latching himself onto the older man’s side. Stakar gently rubbed the top of the boy’s head. He knew that it would only be a short while before he was back asleep.

“Watch?”

“A video Mama sent.”

“Mama?”

He smiled, “want to listen?”

Stakar replayed the video back to where Lupin was talking about the boy’s parents and their time at school. It was the tamest part of the video and where Aleta had asked most of her clarifying questions during the man’s tale. Harris gave a yawn after a few seconds, his eyelids drooping. He was so sweet like this, Stakar knew it wouldn’t last. That one day a meer pat on the back would become embarrassing to him. He drank the moment in, hoping that one day he could dream of this memory instead.

Sometime after Harris fell asleep Stakar ended up dozing off only to be woken by Martinex knocking on the cabin door. However many extra hours of sleep he'd gotten were not enough though as he was ready to start stabbing people.

It was one of those days where the universe had decided to update the cosmos, which seemed to wipe everyone’s brains of common sense, intelligence, and general know-how. So here he was having to micro-manage the idiot parade. Thus far he’d had no fewer than six captains call him to ask for permissions for an ‘out of bounds’ job. He’d gotten seventeen requests for assistance from engineers that were not on his ship, which shouldn’t even be happening as they had their own lines of communications. Only for the aforementioned engineers to have their captains call back and ask permission for the two parties to call a truce. It was never a good thing to have the engineers mad at you. And whatever had caused this rift he was not getting in the middle of it. He sent Martinex to sort it out over an hour ago and the other man had yet to return.

Stakar was relieved that no calls from the _Falcor_ had come in, frivolous or otherwise. Aleta could handle her own issues for the most part. Only when something major happened did she send in a request for assistance. Her girls also prided themselves in not needing to ask the men for help. That was fine, as long as they were willing to lend a hand once and a while. Which they did, if a bit begrudgingly.

A fourth of his fleet was acting like first flighters, and the rest were just handling it. He hoped. If he wasn’t in the middle of flying the ship he’d be down in the hanger bay having a smoke. Something he rarely did anymore as smoking was bad for Terran lungs and he didn’t want Harris to think it was cool or something equally as silly.

He finished composing a mass message to the rest of the fleet asking if they were capable of handling their crap or if they needed him to babysit them? He was just about ready to say ‘screw it’ and hand the tasks off to another officer so he could get some more sleep. Or go work out some aggression in the training room. Yeah blasting a few holes into some targets would help keep himself awake until it was time for the night cycle.

“Sir we’ve got a breach in the weapons hall.”

Stakar took a deep breath, it seemed that whatever idiocy bug was going around had made it onto his ship. Only instead of presenting in stupid questions, or questionable judgments, it was showing up as a mutiny.

“Visuals?”

“They’re going for the big guns.”

Stakar let a wicked smile appear on his face, nothing like some real-time target practice to wake a person up. If they insisted, he would comply. It had been ages since he’d been able to let loose.

“Alert Jorgen to keep Harris out of harm's way, let me know if there’s anything vital that goes wrong. Activate ‘Mutiny procedures’, Lieutenant you have the bridge.”

Stakar stood up and quickly vacated the bridge, his mind already on the fight. No one took over his ship, no one. He’d even fight Aleta, but he would never give up his ship while he still had breath in his body. If anyone thought otherwise then they deserved the pain he would be delivering.

Stakar had Harris safely in his arms, granted the boy hadn’t left his arms since that afternoon. The mutiny had started amongst the new recruits they’d picked up recently. They’d spread out into various parts of the ship to try and take it over. They hadn’t even gotten close to overwhelming the crew that had been there for a year and beyond and were quickly subdued. Which had been their second mistake.

Their first had been targeting Harrison. Stakar wasn’t sure what type of stupid a being had to be in order to try and attack a three-year-old that was surrounded by loyal Ravagers. Son of the Admiral and Second Captain aside, you had to be special to think you’d be getting out of that confrontation alive.

Harris was resolute in his determination to cling to his Dad. He and Jorgen had been in the mess hall when the mutiny started. Jorgen had quickly sized up the situation and scooped him up and fled, but not before he’d sustained three hits to his back. Or that’s what the cook said, about what had happened just before he hit the attacker with his favorite meat cleaver.

Jorgen had made it up to the bridge before passing out from blood loss, only fifteen minutes after Stakar had left. The poor Lieutenant he’d left in charge had been helpless with the toddler until Marty showed back up. The first mate had taken full control of the situation and Harris who had clung to him until Stakar had returned.

Harris had stayed with him not wanting to get down at all. He was even refusing to use the bathroom. Thankfully he hadn’t made a mess, but it was starting to worry Stakar. Dinner was soon and he was almost willing to lift the cookie ban to get his son to eat. If that didn’t work then he’d be calling Aleta. She’d be wound up about the whole thing, but she’d probably have an idea of how to get him to eat. He hoped.

The surviving mutineers were in the brig, waiting for him to decide on their fates. He was tempted to let Aleta have a go at them. She would want to, considering they had gone after their son. But then she’d need to leave the Falcor again and her crew was already behind enough as it was.

He looked at the time, dinner would be starting soon and Harris still had remnants of dried blood on him, despite Martinex’s attempts to remove it. With a clocklike motion of his right hand, Marty gave a nod and Stakar stood up. Harris didn't seem to notice the shift as his Dad walked them off the bridge and towards the officers' quarters. The little boy was playing with the fastenings on Stakar’s jacket while they walked. He’d never been this silent before, Stakar was hoping that taking him back to a calm environment would help him.

“Buddy, would you like to go play in your room?” He asked.

Harris didn’t respond, in fact, he had barely said two words together since waking from his nap. Stakar was beginning to think that the boy would need more help than he was able to give him right now. He’d just seen someone he cared about hurt badly and been covered in their blood. Stakar hadn’t had that happen until he was sixteen. He was still working through that memory.

He walked into the boy’s room from his cabin, the light was off to conserve energy so Stakar flipped it on. The light came on just as he felt the blaster to his head. It probably wouldn’t kill him, but it would knock him out allowing whoever was behind it unfettered access to Harris.

“What do you want?” Stakar asked.

“You’re going to release the others and give us a ship and leave us alone, or your little boy will join your men.”

“Daddy?” Harris asked, looking up at him. Fear lanced Stakar’s heart, this was supposed to be a safe space for his son. With a calming breath, he spoke again.

“It’s alright Harris,” Stakar said, “alright let me call the bridge-”

“No, we are going to walk up to the bridge, if anyone tries to stop us or interfere. I shoot the kid.”

Stakar took a deep breath again, “alright.”

He clenched his teeth together as they walked, eyes darting around looking for any other way to get his son out of this. Harris was getting fidgety, asking for his Patty dog. He asked so much that their ‘captor’ yelled at him.

“Shut up.”

“He’s just a kid, he doesn’t know any better.”

“Well, he’s not gonna get to be anything more than that if he doesn’t shut up.”

Harris whimpered as Stakar rubbed his back, looking around for an opening to get them out of this. They reached the area where the hallway split off in two directions. One way would take them directly to the bridge, the other would take them to another part of the ship. Stakar wondered briefly if the man behind him knew which hall was which. Probably not as most of his peers were newer to the ship, he’d probably stumbled into the officer’s quarters by mistake and gotten lucky.

“Which way?” Stakar asked.

“Don’t you know your own ship?”

Stakar did his best not to smile at the man’s ignorance.

“Just thought I’d ask, one hall is faster than the other.”

“Faster then,” he hissed.

Stakar walked down the hall that would take them away from the bridge, his mind forming a plan. The lights were becoming dimmer as they walked, and for once he didn’t feel uneasy about this section of the ship.

“This door up here,” Stakar said, as he tried to remember how easy it was to shoot a moving target.

“Walk faster!”

Stakar almost let loose but Harris giving a small whine stopped him. He needed to be calculated in his next movements. As they came up to the medbay door he feigned tripping. Swinging his arms low he slid Harris into the room like a hockey puck across the freshly waxed floors of the medbay.

He whipped around just in time to catch the muzzle of the primed blaster and aim it at the ceiling as it went off. He threw all his weight onto his assailant to throw him off balance and pin him to the wall. It didn’t work the way Stakar had wanted it to, only managing to separate them as the other man wrenched himself out of Stakar’s grasp.

Stakar looked at his adversary before unleashing his wings. They were a ‘ _gift’_ from his father-in-law’s experiments, the wings were made up of solid light particles and would burn flesh or even metal if he armed the light particles that way. They quickly unfurled and struck the man in the chest and face, prompting a blood curdling scream as they did. He waited a few seconds before retracting his wings, getting into a better fighting stance as he did. The man didn’t get back up, he just laid there as the sound of rapidly approaching feet reached Stakar’s ears.

The mutineer probably could have lived if Doctor Karr responded in a timely fashion. But that was the thing about Ravagers, the doctors didn’t have to follow any oaths or ethical codes, only the Ravager code was important. If Karr chose to not give someone who had just tried to kill his favorite patient then Stakar wouldn’t say anything about it.

Doctor Karr looked up when he heard terse voices coming from the hallway. Probably more wounded. He stood up from his post when to his surprise Harrison slid through the door. The blaster fire clues him in that there was a fight in progress and he leaned over to shut the door via the emergency button.

“Daddy!” Harris screamed, finding his feet as he tried to make it to the door before it shut. Karr sprinted across the room and caught him before he could get his fingers stuck, or worse.

He looked down at Harris who was now trying to escape his grasp screaming at the now locked door. Screaming for his Father. Doctor Karr did the only thing he could think of at that moment. He scooped up the raging child in his arms and held him, screams soon turned to sobs. He shut his eyes, willing himself to keep his cool, to bury the memories of the children from his own past. A past that still haunted him when no one was looking

“Daddy! Wan Daddy, Daddy!”

He tried rubbing Harris’ back as he’d seen the Captains do when he was upset. He thought he’d heard a thud outside the bay but he wasn’t going to check. He was a brawler when it came down to fighting, but he had a crying kid to deal with on top of multiple patents to see to.

“Karr could you quiet him down,” someone yelled from one of the aforementioned patents from somewhere behind him. He made a mental note to make sure to use the big needle when he sewed up the patient in question in the future. The disrespect some species had towards children was something he would never allow himself to get used to.

“Da,” Harris said, sobbing a bit quieter his breaths coming in gasps.

“He’ll be fine Harris, he hasn’t come this far in life to die at the hands of an idiot.”

“Idot?” Harris said, sniffling his eyes big.

Karr was sure that the three-year-old had heard the word before. His vocabulary was quite advanced for his age, perhaps it was the accent or the translator that was making him question the word. He offered the kid a wry smile.

“Yep. Your Dad is one of the toughest guys I know, he hardly ever comes to see me for anything concerning himself. He’ll be fine.”

“Jory?” He asked.

“Jorgen will be fine too, he’s just gonna need a little more time to do it.”

As if he’d been listening Stakars voice came over the open commlink that he had in case another crewmate was found in need of medical attention. His voice sounded a tad winded.

“Karr, we need a Doctor in the medbay hall, looks like third-degree burns across their face and upper torso.”

“Coming Captain,” he said maneuvering Harris so he could grab his emergency kit.

Unlocking the door was a process which was why the remote lock button was for emergencies only. Once it was open he and Harris entered the hall, it smelled like a BBQ in the hall minus the sweet smell of spices and the tangy aroma of sauces. He missed home sometimes when he could imagine that all the bad stuff there didn’t exist. When he caught a glimpse of the soon to be corps, he arched an eyebrow as Harris reached for his Dad.

“Daddy! Daddy!”

Doctor Karr handed the boy over to his Father, the Captain practically engulfing his son in a hug. Running his hands over him as if to reassure himself that the boy was ok. Taking a deep breath, instantly regretting it, he turned and looked over at the mutineer.

“Looks like a lost cause sir. You might as well head back to the bridge, not much you can do here.”

“Zhane,” the man in question froze, the Captain had never called him by his first name. He waited for the other man to finish speaking.

“Thank you for closing the door. Harris has seen enough today.”

He nodded and watched as both Ogords left the hallway. Harris saying “idot” as they passed the remains. A smirk appeared on the doctor's face, he was gonna keep an eye on those two. If he didn’t the galaxy might just not know what hit it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! 
> 
> Harris will be fine! He will be spoiled rotten over the next few days as his Dad monitors his every move to make sure he's ok. There's gonna be a bit of a time skip in the next chapter. See you there!


	20. After

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the Mutiny Stakar and Harris pick up the pieces.

Harris curled up into his Da’s side clutching Paddy. He was reading a story and Harris’s eyes were starting to go a little fuzzy, but he jerked himself awake again as his Da’s voice started slowing down. He didn’t want him to stop reading, he wanted to make sure that his Da was with him, bad things happened when Da wasn’t around.

“Harris, are you asleep?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Don’t wanna, wanna stay with you.”

He snuggled closer to his Da to prove his point.

“I’ll be right here Fledge, I’m not going anywhere.”

Da’s voice was soft, and his hand started rubbing his back. Harris liked that, it kept the scary people away.

“No go.”

“I won’t, I’ll still be here when you wake up, you’ve got to go to sleep though.”

“No,” he said, just before a yawn escaped him.

“Hmm,” said his Da, “I have an idea.”

Harris watched as his Da’s fingers started tapping on the datapad’s screen. He watched as letters he couldn’t read flashed up on the screen at a fast rate. Unca Mawwie had promised to show him how to read it one day. Mama had said the same thing.

“Da?”

“Yes?”

“What doin?”

“Waiting for a reply from someone.”

“Who,” he asked as he popped his thumb into his mouth.

His Da didn’t reply as the datapad started to make its call noise. Harris felt sad as he didn’t want to get sent to his room, he wasn’t allowed to snuggle with Da when he had to take a call. To his surprise though Da answered the call without sending him to his room. A face appeared on the screen and Harris’s thumb came out of his mouth.

“Mama!”

“Hi Fledge, how are you?”

“Seepy.”

Mama smiled at him, “then why are you still awake?”

“Don’t wanna leave Da.”

“Oh? Why’s that?”

“Bad happens when Da not wif me.”

Mama nodded and looked like she was thinking, “Harris has Da been getting into trouble?”

Harris nodded, then remembered who was right next to him and looked up at his Da’s face. He didn’t look mad his face had that smile that made his eyes look wrinkly. Not the one that meant he was secretly in trouble, but the one that told Harris he was being silly.

“And here I let you have cookies for dinner. I gave you a treat, and you tell on me to Mama?”

“Oh.”

“Stakar, don’t tease him. Harris, would you like to hear a story?”

“Da read to me.”

“I understand, but would you like to hear a new story?”

Harris scrunched up his face, Mama read to him too but not as much as Da did, she told him stories. They were fun stories sometimes about a little boy and girl, sometimes more. He liked those stories, because unlike Da’s stories he didn’t fall asleep during them.

“Yes please, Mama.”

Mama smiled at him again, “Many years ago, there was a little girl with long black hair and green eyes and she lived with her Da. One day her Da brought home a little boy that was her age. The little girl didn’t like this, she wanted to be the only child that her Da took care of. So she ignored the boy-”

Harris snuggled closer to his Da, who started rubbing his back again, listening to his Mama’s soft voice as she told him the story. He was so focused on her story that he didn’t realize that he was drifting off to sleep.

Stakar was glad that he’d messaged Aleta to call, her voice worked wonders on Harris. He’d fallen asleep rather quickly, drifting off before Aleta had gotten to the part of the story that she’d have to heavily sanitize for a child. He had heard her this story before, she had told it to their older children in roughly the same fashion, it was their story. The story of how they’d met, survived, fled, and fallen in love.

She always stopped before she reached what happened to their children. When they’d been alive she’d always ended with them having three children and living happily ever after. He didn’t know if she would change the ending this time around, as to his knowledge she hadn’t told Harris this story before.

Once she was sure he was asleep she switched topics but not tones, “what happened?”

“Mutiny.”

Her face went still, she didn’t even blink for several seconds, “what did he see?”

“Enough. Jorgen got him to the bridge but not before getting wounded, he’ll live but his injuries are serious enough that Harris is going to be my shadow for a bit.”

“Is that all he saw?”

She sounded relieved, which only made Stakar feel worse about what she had to tell her.

“No,” he told her everything that transpired up to dinner time when he’d managed to get some food and a cookie into Harris. Aleta’s lips had thinned to a point that Stakar was wondering if she’d bitten them off in an attempt not to start screaming.

“He’s unharmed?”

“Yes.”

She sighed, “I’m angry but not at you. You did what you could to keep him safe. What has happened to the mutineers?”

“Unceremoniously tossed out into the vacuum of space.”

“Good,” she looked thoughtful for a moment, “do you want me to come?”

“I think I’ve got it, but I might be calling you more.”

She smiled, “I wouldn’t mind that, it’s better than getting even further behind.”

“Further?”

“The Kree are playing hide and seek with the Nova in a third of our hunting grounds. We don’t want to get into a skirmish with any battleships right now. But they are a deterrent to any of our regular prey.”

“Let me know if you need help.”

“Eddard and Callfish are closer to us. You're about five days away from us.”

“Still,” he said, “let me know.”

“Will do,” she looked off to the side, “I’ve got to go, there’s an issue down in engineering.”

“What is it with them, mine are fighting with a few other engineers from other ships?”

“I’ll find out if my girls know what's up with yours and get back to you.”

He chuckled, “take care, Leta.”

_Harris ran along the corridor looking for anyone he knew, but the halls were empty. He was scared as he continued to run down new hallways looking for his Da. The halls were cold and lonely when no one was in them. Which somehow made them bigger to him and thus more frightening. He turned one last corner and saw him. His Dad was standing at the end of the hallway, glaring at someone whose back was to Harris. It was then he saw his Da start to talk._

_“I’m not going to let you hurt Harry.”_

_That, that wasn’t his Da’s voice, not at all. But it sounded familiar, so much so that he wanted the voice to come closer. He wanted his Dad to come and take him away, to make him safe._

_“Avada Kedavra!”_

_A high-pitched waspish voice cried out as a flash of green light appeared._

_“Da!” Harris screamed as he watched the green light hurtle towards his Dad._

_Harris reached out but his Dad looked at him, “Harris wake up.”_

Stakar woke to crying, quickly he sat up and reached for Harris who was tossing and turning in his sleep.

“Harris, Harris wake up. Wake up Fledge.”

The little boy’s eyes flew open and he started crying earnestly. Stakar wrapped his arms around him and rocked him.

“It’s alright Fledge, you’re here, you’re safe, Daddy’s got you. You’re safe.”

“Da,” he whimpered, “no gween light Da. It bad.”

“Ok, ok no green lights.”

This seemed to calm Harris down and he managed to slow down his crying to small sniffles. Stakar continued to rock him back and forth, rubbing his back. Worry was starting to pool in his gut. He hadn’t had a nightmare in a few months, but what if there was actual damage done to him by the mutiny? If the soul fragment was loose again, or if the mutiny itself had triggered something would Harris be in more danger?

“Da,” Harris said.

“Hmm?”

“Seepy.”

Stakar sighed, “would you like a story?”

“Yes, please.”

“Once there was a little boy who wanted nothing more than to find his family-”

Stakar watched through the two-way window in the therapy office a few months later. Harris was playing with dolls with the specialist. He seemed to be ok, but Stakar didn’t want to take any chances. Aleta had agreed with him on having the almost four-year-old go to a couple of therapy sessions to make sure that his witnessing the mutiny didn’t have any lasting effects on him. He was talking to it well enough and the doctor was happy with the progress the boy was making, this was to be his last session. After they were finished here they’d head off towards _Haven_ for the yearly meeting.

He was a little concerned about talking to Aleta. Her last message had stated that she wanted to discuss Lupin while they were together. At length.

Not that he blamed her, he’d been floating through the stardust for a bit on it. He didn’t want to make a final decision. Not after the mutiny, even if it was a few months ago. If he told her he was alright with Lupin meeting with Harris then she’d want to push the education issue. Harris was nearly a year out from needing to start some type of basic education and Aleta wanted it settled before he turned five. The door to the hallway he was in opened and Harris came out with the doctor right behind him, a huge grin was on the boy’s face.

“Da all done!”

“Great, just give me a second ok?”

He ruffled Harris’s hair before looking at the doctor.

“He’s doing fine, unless something major comes up I wouldn’t worry about how he’s coping.”

“Thank you. Come on Fledge, let’s head out.”

The little boy dutifully took his hand then turned slightly to see the doctor over his shoulder and waved.

“Thank-you for playing with me.”

The doctor chuckled, “Bye, bye Harrison.”

Stakar’s heart almost turned to mush then and there, though the last part had Stakar wondering if he needed to play with his son more. He did his best to make time to play with him, but he was so good at making up his own little games and stories that Stakar preferred to watch him. He’d especially taken to the paper and colors that Lupin had sent for him and was working through the large book to make sure that every single piece of paper had been colored. Much to Stakar’s amusement, he had never thought that Harris would have an inclination for such things, which now had him looking for similar things to occupy his son with when the book was eventually filled. Harris was nothing if not thorough.

When they got back onto Stakar’s M ship Harris ran to the ladder that went up to the flight deck.

“Da, come on!”

“I’m coming, don’t rush me,” he said, chuckling to himself. Even when he was younger his kids had all accused him of being slow.

“I wanna see Mama, an’ Unca Yondu, and Unca Charlie-”

He continued his list of people he couldn’t wait to see as Stakar swept him up into his arms and climbed the ladder. Once topside Stakar plopped him into his seat and reached for the seat belts only for Harris to insist that he could do it himself.

“No Da, I do it,” Harris said, pushing Stakar’s hands away from the straps.

Stakar stood back and watched as his son struggled to put the straps in the right holders, his little face screwing up more with each passing second.

“Harris, what do we do if something is hard?”

He looked up with glistening eyes, “Help please?”

“I gotcha, it’s ok to ask for help.”

Stakar righted the fastenings before buckling Harris in safely.

“Ready to go?”

“One, two, three, lift-off!” Harris shouted.

Stakar laughed as he went to his seat to get them airborne. His little passenger was energetically giving him directions from the back, all of which Stakar ignored. Once they were airborne Harris was asleep within ten minutes, much to Stakar’s relief as he wanted to make most of this flight in some semblance of silence.

M ships were designed with two options in mind, a single flyer or a small crew. Stakar had elected to fly solo this time as there would be no one on the Starhawk who didn’t have something to do. He didn’t mind it would give him time to think, but he would need to meet up with them within twenty clicks from _Haven_ which while not normally a problem was hard for a child to sit through and not get antsy. He had just completed his third jump when a call came through, his eyes did not leave the scanner as it looked for other ships and potential threats, he answered it out of habit.

“I just called Marty, he said you were out?”

“Keep your voice down Harris is asleep we just left the head doctor’s,” He said, cautioning Aleta.

“He’s ok?”

“Yes,” he glanced at the screen, she didn’t appear to be in mixed company but that wasn’t a guarantee.

“That’s a relief. We’re twenty clicks out from _Haven_.”

“Already?”

She gave him a sly look, “I may have patterned our route with last year’s _incident_ in mind.”

Stakar gave a chuckle and glanced over his shoulder, Harris was still asleep and using Star as his pillow while clutching Moony and Paddy tightly. The little dog was starting to look a bit worn which was concerning to Stakar as the toy was undoubtedly Harris’ favorite.

“Did you call for any particular reason?”

“I...I wanted to set up some ground rules,” she said, “we need to talk about Lupin and I just don’t want us taking cheap shots at each other and not get anywhere.”

Stakar nodded, even after a couple of years of therapy they could still devolve their fights into vicious snarling matches. Each of them unwilling to yield to the other. Ground rules though seemed to help keep them civil even if they didn’t agree by the end of the discussion.

“Same ones we had last time?”

“No physical fighting, no questioning each other’s sanity, don’t make digs veiled or otherwise, don’t interrupt who’s speaking, and hear each other out.”

“Done,” he said, “Is this just for the subject of Lupin or any of our conversations?”

Aleta tilted her head, “Why would you ask that, is there something you’re not telling me?”

“I don’t think so,” he said, “honestly I could give you my answer on Lupin now, I’m just not ready to discuss having him teach Harris.”

Aleta nodded looking thoughtful, “I’ve got some thoughts on that too. I’ve been talking to Lupin, he’s having to walk a fine line now that Dumbledore has expressed interest in him again. There are things I think he’s holding back from me but I think he’s on the level.”

Stakar smiled, “I agree with you there, but when it comes to him teaching Harris- he’s just not got the experiences that are needed out here. I want Harris to be able to go anywhere in the galaxy and not have a huge learning curve like Lupin would if he joined up.”

“What if he just taught him Terran subjects? And we- I don’t know, sent Harris to the same school that Shelby is going to?” Aleta asked.

Stakar thought for a moment, it was an interesting idea that he hadn’t thought about, “I need to think about it.”

“Then we table this and talk about it later?”

He agreed, but he noticed that she didn’t give any indication of ending the call.

“What would you say to calling Lupin while we’re on _Haven_? Just so you can talk with him, feel him out a bit better? Harris wouldn’t have to be involved.”

Stakar nearly snorted, Harris wouldn’t want to be anywhere without his parents. Since the mutiny, he’d been exceptionally clingy. Not that Stakar could blame him, he had been terrified during his first experience with a mutiny and he’d been an adult.

“If you can figure out how to detach him from your leg once he sees you then sure.”

Aleta chuckled, “still clingy?”

“What do you think?”

An alarm sounded on Aleta’s end of the call and she swore.

“Go I’ll see you at _Haven_.”

She didn’t even acknowledge his words and disconnected the call.

“Stay safe love,” he whispered.

Stakar prepped the next jump wanting to reach his meet-up point with the _Starhawk_ faster. He knew she could handle herself, that she was capable, but that knowledge did nothing to stem the protective streak that he had for her. He wondered if it was just a part of his biological makeup or if it was a result of their bond or both. What he did know was that there was a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach anytime she got called away by alarms that he wasn’t familiar with.

Harris gave a small whimper that had Stakar looking over his shoulder. He was still asleep, his face peaceful for now. He hoped that the nightmares stayed out of his nap time dreams. His nighttime ones were just starting to taper off. He was hoping that this next week with family would help.

A flashing light told him that the ship was ready to jump. He returned his attention to getting them home safely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nothing like a few good stories to help you sleep. :) Remus comes back in the next chapter. 
> 
> Thank you for reading, let me know if you had a favorite part, or if you're looking forward to the next chapter.


	21. Approval

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Approval comes in various forms, it is a terrible thing to lose.

July 24th, 1984

Remus sat in the shade of the old tree that covered the back garden of his Dad’s house. He was relaxing after helping clear up a few beds in the garden. The clinking of leftover ice in Lyle’s glass was a welcome accompaniment to the various nature sounds of the waning afternoon. In all honesty, Remus preferred it to the noise of the city. If he could just stay in this moment for the rest of his life, unfettered by the problems of the wider universe he wouldn’t ask for much else.

He’d spent his youth here, growing up and transforming in an underground root cellar that was magically re-enforced. Thankfully the moon had already passed and he wouldn’t need to use the cellar for the foreseeable future.

Lyle turned to Remus, “how’s school been?”

Remus tilted his head towards his Dad lazily, “Dad, you know I graduated.”

“Yes,” Lyle seemed a bit disgruntled, “but I don’t know Muggle schooling. Does graduating mean you’re all done with what you need in order to start working like in our world?”

“Well almost, I had to take a test for certification and I’m waiting for it to come back, if I pass then I’ll be able to work in England and Wales as a supply teacher.”

“That's the type of teacher that goes in when the regular one is sick?”

Remus sighed, “yes, Dad we’ve been over this. Why are you asking?”

Lyle Lupin fiddled with his glass again, not meeting his son's eyes, “I just can’t help but wonder if there aren’t better options for you in the magical world.”

Remus furrowed his brow, “Dad you know as well as I do that there aren’t.”

“But what if there were? If someone pulled a few strings-”

“Has Albus been by,” Remus asked, cooly.

“Yes, how did you know?”

Remus took a deep breath, “because he invited me to tea back in March, he told me he’d be willing to _pull a few strings_ as you put it. I think he wants me away from the UK.”

Lyle looked confused, “but why? He was genuinely impressed with you while you were at school. Why do you think he wants you to leave?”

“Dad, did he tell you that the _opportunities_ he mentioned were in America?”

“No, I cannot say that he did.”

Remus gave a sardonic grimace, “Dad, I'm pretty sure he wants me to go to America to keep me away from Harry.”

“Well,” Lyle said after a few seconds of thought, “that’s odd. Some people just don’t know when to butt out, do they? I mean what would sending you away from your family and friends do? You’d have no connections in America. I’ll just have to let him know that he’s not to bother with sending any recommendations for you.”

Remus chuckled, then had a horrible thought, “Dad you didn’t mention that I was working towards a degree in the Muggle world did you?”

“Hmm? Oh no, Dumbledore did most of the talking, it never came up in conversation.”

Remus relaxed again rubbing his hand over his face. His Dad was right, the old man didn’t know when to quit. Remus just hoped that this wouldn’t have Albus doubling his attempts to dictate Remus’ life.

“Remus,” he turned his head to look at Lyle again, “please don’t think that I’m pressuring you to take his offer. While I don’t understand a lot of the ins and outs of the Muggle system, I understand why you need to look elsewhere to make a living.”

His face got sad after he said this, “you do know I’m proud of you, right? It’s not easy for us to do what you’re doing, learning a completely different culture just to make a living. I couldn’t have asked for a better son.”

He stared at his Dad. His brain struggled to comprehend what he’d just heard. Yes, he had been told that his parents were very proud of him, but this had normally been his Mum telling him that. Or a teacher. Since he’d gone into the Muggle world he couldn’t help but think that maybe Lyle was a tad disappointed in his only child having to steer away from Magic almost completely.

His eyes were starting to feel a bit moist, “thanks, Dad.”

Lyle reached over and grasped Remus’ hand, “I’ll always be proud of you Remus, even if your path takes you to the moon or some other far-flung place. Don’t let me or Dumbledore or anyone else influence your choices, it’s your life.”

They stayed like that for several minutes, not talking until darkness covered the land before them.

July 31, 1984

Remus fumbled with the keys to his flat, his arms weighed down with his weekly shopping. He’d been busy for the last two weeks with his last-minute preparations for his interviews that were coming up and had left the shopping until he only had condiments. He also had plans to help his Dad around his house again this weekend. Which had left today as his only day to do the shopping as he had to work late every other day this week.

He stumbled into the apartment and kicked the door shut behind him. He had just set the bags on the table when he heard a faint beeping sound. He swore and ran towards his bedroom. He couldn’t risk missing a call with Aleta.

He snatched it up from his bedside table and hit the answer button as he walked out of the dark bedroom. He still didn’t know how to greet people on the other end of these things. Was a simple hello appropriate, should he wait for her to start talking?

When the image appeared on the screen it was not who he’d anticipated seeing. In Aleta’s place was a man that looked older than her by a stretch with his hair graying at the temple.

“Hello,” Remus said, slowly.

“Remus Lupin I presume?”

His voice had a more robotic sound to it than Aleta’s did, but he figured that it was because of the device that he was using. His tone though, it reminded Remus of when he’d gone to a girl's house before a date and her dad had answered the door. Before he could answer a second voice came from over the communicator.

“Good grief Stakar,” Aleta said from somewhere off-screen, “give him a heart attack why don’t you? Terran’s only live a short time you know.”

Remus bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing at her comments and he relaxed a bit, “you’re Stakar Ogord, Aleta’s husband? It’s nice to meet you, sir.”

The older man blinked as if Remus had caught him off guard. Which only served to make him uneasy again. Had he just committed a faux pas that he didn’t know about?

“Da, up! Up, up up!"

Remus froze at the sound of a young voice. While he couldn’t see him he just knew that the voice had to belong to Harry. His eyes started to hone in on the screen as if he could get any more information out of it than he currently was. Stakar turned slightly and spoke in a language that Remus couldn’t understand. The tone of the man’s words however was, in his opinion, kind or better yet fond.

“Lupin,” Aleta’s voice came over the speaker again, “as I’m sure you’ve picked up on, Harris is joining us for a bit.”

“We were hoping he’d be more patient about it though,” Stakar muttered as he hoisted a small child into his lap.

There on the screen was Harry. Remus could only stare at the boy who was holding a small black dog. He looked curious, Remus would go so far as to say he was happy. He was wearing a dark turquoise colored outfit that looked like a dead ringer for the uniform he’d seen Aleta wearing in all of their calls. Not to mention the one Stakar was wearing, though his was a dark blue in contrast to Aleta’s forest green, a medallion with a flame symbol on the right of the jacket was the same though.

“Harris,” Stakar said, drawing Remus’ attention back, “this is Remus Lupin, he’s a friend.”

The little boy looked at the screen, his eyes darting around what he assumed was a screen to analyze the person displayed upon it. Remus was doing the same, the more he looked at Harry the more that he saw various bits of James in his face. Yet he still looked uncannily like his adoptive parents.

“Hi.”

Remus grinned, “Hello, how are you today Harr- Harris?”

He did his best to mimic the name that Stakar had used, he wasn’t used to it himself but perhaps with time, it would fit the boy in front of him.

“Good, I gots candy from Unca Yondu!”

“You what?”

Remus barely covered a laugh that wished to escape, Aleta sounded like she wanted to murder someone.

“Candy Mama,” Harris said, looking off-screen, holding out a fist full of small colorful objects that Remus assumed were candies.

“Harris, why don’t you go with Mama and find your Uncle?”

“Tay Da. 'Wets go, Mama, go go go!”

He then crawled off of Stakar’s lap, Remus could hear little footsteps running away from wherever they had set up the call. Stakar seemed to be paying attention to Aleta who was still off-camera.

“Well, now that we’re alone,” Stakar said.

“Um about that,” Remus said, wincing, “I hate to ask but I just got home and I’ve got groceries that need to go-”

To his surprise, Stakar laughed, “prop the com up and put your supplies away, there’s no reason why at least one of us can’t get something done.”

Remus nodded and hastened to do just that, pondering the word choice of his caller. After he was sure the com was secure he backed away and started putting away the perishable items.

“Aleta has nothing but good things to say about you,” Stakar said, venturing back into the conversation.

“Since she barely knows me I would caution you to take that with a kilo of salt.”

“Oh believe me I have, I didn’t get to where I am in life by ignoring my instincts.”

“Nor have I,” Remus said, putting away the milk.

“And what would require you to have such skills?”

He wanted to laugh, had the old space pirate never been involved in a war?

“Well among other things, I was a spy in the last war.”

Stakar didn’t say anything for a few seconds prompting Remus to check to see if the call was still connected.

“That would do it,” he said at last.

Remus continued putting things away but Stakar said nothing. When he finally got all the perishables stowed away, he turned back to find that Stakar had been watching him in a manner that he’d described as intense.

“You laid your life story to Aleta and yet, you seem to be holding back?”

Remus thought for a moment, what could he be holding back, other than his personal thoughts about things in general.

“I don’t know why that would be, I was as honest as I could be every time we spoke.”

“That,” Stakar said, “that is why we think you are hiding something. When people go all diplomatic for no reason they tend to be hiding something.”

Remus glared at him hard, “I’m sorry you feel that way, but I’m being truthful with you. I’ve had to choose my words carefully all my life in order to blend into the different parts of the worlds that I live in. Now I’m having to deal with you and I’m at a disadvantage as I don’t even know the social rules for- what did she call it,” he muttered to himself more than Stakar as he tried to recall the name of their pirate gang.

“I don’t know the social rules for _Ravagers_. I know them for Muggles,” he saw Stakar wince and ignored him, “for Wizards, Werewolves, Centars, and the Giants; Extraterrestrials are new territory for me. So excuse me if I choose my words in order not to offend the people who control my ability to ever get to see the boy I consider a nephew.”

His breaths were coming in gasps now. He hoped that his neighbors weren’t home, if they were then they’d think him even odder than before. He hadn’t meant to go off on a tirade but he hated to be accused of lying. Unless it was warranted, then he felt bad about it. But now his stomach began to sink as he noted Stakar’s face had gone blank the entire time Remus had been speaking.

“I see,” Stakar’s tone was almost deadpan now.

He’d blown it. He was never going to see Harry again.

“I can see why Aleta likes you.”

Remus blinked in confusion, “what?”

“You aren’t afraid to speak your mind when you get riled up,” Stakar smiled, “you’ve got a good lid on it though. That’s good to see, she does not. Never has and she’s too far gone to start now.”

“You’re, you aren’t angry?”

He snorted, “Why would I be angry when I deliberately provoked you?”

“You- you what?”

“I wanted to see how you’d behave when angry, and maybe get an answer for why you’ve been so diplomatic when speaking with us.”

“That wasn’t anger, that was frustration.”

Stakar cocked his head, “I find that one usually leads to the other.”

That, was kinda true if Remus was being honest with himself. The older man ran his hand through his hair then winced pulling it out and trying to fix it.

“I’m a bit frustrated at the moment myself, I’ve been in meetings all day and Aleta sprung this call on me. I figured we’d be having this conversation at the end of the week.”

Remus huffed, “she has amazing timing, I’m scheduled for work every day but today.”

He had so many questions he wanted to ask. He’d been saving them up as Aleta had been a bit cagey about answering him. She preferred to ask the questions than answer them.

“Aleta tells me you’re studying to become a teacher?”

Remus nodded, “I just completed my studies, actually, I’m waiting on test results to see if I can get a job.”

Stakar went silent again as Remus put more food away. A niggling question in the back of his mind.

“You’re not human, or have people been pulling my leg about that?” Remus asked.

“No. I’m not human, I prefer to keep my exact species to myself. Aleta and I are the last of our kind.”

“So you chose piracy because you had nothing better to do?”

Stakar laughed, lines appeared out of nowhere on his face, “you're not far off, we started off as a simple shipping group until a few different governments got together and created the Nova alliance. They wanted everyone registered and regulated in order to be known as an official business. But we were a small outfit, well known in certain circles, and we were mostly from species that were dying out, mostly wiped out, or in the case of myself and Aleta the last of our kind. The Nova would have quietly taken us hostage and either experimented on us or tried to repopulate our resection species. And Aleta wasn’t fond of the idea of being pregnant again so- piracy it was.”

For some reason, Remus thought it was more complex than that but he didn’t want to push his luck.

“Is Harry safe?”

“With Aleta and I, yes. With a select number of our friends, mostly yes. With our fleet at large? Not completely.”

“Why?”

“We’re pirates,” Stakar shrugged, “if a person can provide a skill they're welcome to join up. But this also means that we get a lot of low lives trying to infiltrate. They either conform to the standards or get tossed out the airlock.”

“Air lock?”

“The door that separates the ship from the vacuum of space.”

“Oh.”

“Do you like teaching?”

Remus was about to reply when a knock came from his door. He recoiled as he looked towards it, he wasn’t expecting anyone.

“Could you hold on a minute? I need to see who that is.”

Stakar nodded and Remus went to the door. He couldn’t think who would be at his door, his Dad would have appeaited over if it was an emergency. Maybe it was one of his neighbors or the landlord.

When he opened the door he nearly shut it again. On the other side of the portal stood Albus Dumbledore.

Several hours earlier

Albus was having a lazy morning. He had no work at the Ministry to attend to, and as school was out for the summer he had some time to relax now that he had secured a new teacher for the Defence against the dark arts class. It was a pity that Madam Harridin couldn’t continue teaching for them another year, but after a dramatic incident during the final exam for the third year students involving a Niffler she had lost her wand hand and would need to undergo intensive physical therapy before she could even return to everyday activities. Thankfully no students were harmed in the incident, and the Niffler had been taken in by one Newt Scamander the world's only Magizoololgist.

Albus liked the look of the day outside and after he’d taken his breakfast decided that a stroll was in order. He quite liked the school grounds this time of the year and it might help to ease his spirits, his mind made up he started off towards the lake.

He had, sadly, received word back from various institutions in America. They had told him under no circumstances would they take Remus Lupin on as a student. One group had even added, in a veiled jab, that his past dealings with Grindenwald being a reason they wouldn’t consider any recommendations coming from himself. But one school had said that they evaluated on a case by case basis, though Remus would have to contact them himself, which was a hopeful outlook if Remus were to apply.

That thought brought up a new line of thought for Albus as he drew near to the lake. He’d had yet another argument with Minerva yesterday before she left for her summer home in Cardiff. She had wanted to know about Harry, she wouldn’t accept that the boy was fine and that Albus was receiving regular updates about him from Arrabella Figg.

_“Albus, I know that you think everyone can turn their lives around, you love to think the best of all people. It’s a commendable trait, but you didn’t have the job of convincing several Gryphendore students not to send Petunia hexed letters, or to go visit her over the summer holidays to exact revenge on Lily’s behalf. She was not a kind young woman, and I don’t think she changed her ways simply because Lily set up a protective barrier to keep the death eaters out. You need to check on Harry, if you haven’t by the time I return I will.”_

He knew that was a promise rather than a threat. Minerva didn’t do things halfway if she could help it, and if she was correct in her assumptions of Petunia’s character and found out about it- He shuddered to think of the ripple effect her moving Heaven and Earth would cause.

He had walked past the lake by this point and turned back towards the front of the grounds, trying to think of a way to convince Minerva not to bother the Dursleys. When a thought struck him, he could go visit Arrabella. She would most likely enjoy the company, and if there were something amis he could investigate it while he was there. Not to mention it was Harry’s birthday and there would surely be a small celebration for the boy that he could look in on under the guise of a sleight of hand magician.

Albus gave himself a mental pat on the back as he hastened his steps towards the front gate. He would show her that everything was fine. Harry was safe and sound in his Aunt's house, protected by his mother’s blood protection, and growing up to be a humble, well-rounded individual. A normal life for an extraordinary child.

“Hello Remus,” Albus said, “may I come in, I have some urgent things to speak with you about.”

Remus seemed to hesitate but finally opened the door to the flat, a guarded look on his face. If Albus had to guess he would assume that the younger man hadn’t expected him to know where he lived. He had known for some time that he had sought out lodgings in Muggle London, he had probably had troubles with magical housing so it was no skin off Albus’ nose.

Once he was within the domicile and the door shut behind him he launched in, “Remus I need you to be completely honest with me. Do you know where Harry is?”

Remus’ eyebrow arched, “how would I when you wouldn’t tell me?”

Albus nearly sighed in frustration, “Remus, I think you need to sit down-”

“Let me guess,” Remus said, his voice toneless, “Harry isn’t with Petunia?”

Albus blinked, ' _how could he have known that?_ '

“Unfortunately you are correct, I have yet to approach her but there is only one child living at the Dursley residence. Which is odd seeing as the blood wards show no signs of deterioration, Arrabella Figg hasn’t seen a second child living there since she moved in-”

“Mrs. Figg,” Remus said, astonishment lacing his words, “you’ve had Mrs. Figg watching? I mean no disrespect to her Albus but she’s a squib, what was she supposed to do if death eaters showed up? If they figured out your various maneuverings and looked through a Muggle address book and found out where Petunia lived what could she have done? And don’t say she could have flued you, it would have been too late by then.”

Albus could see that he’d made a mistake, he should have gone straight to Minerva, her ire was nothing compared to the man he currently stood in front of. He seemed to be making quite a few of those lately.

“Remus, I realize I should have had more forethought, but in my defense-”

“You don’t have any defenses here Albus, you’ve lost my godson,” Remus spat, his voice laced with furry, “I may not be his godfather legally, but so help me, Albus, if that boy doesn’t show up at Hogwarts on September first in seven years I’m going to burn every last bridge I have to find him. You can bet your spectacles that I’ll let everyone know just who lost him too.”

Seven years. Albus felt his heart sink, he only had seven years to repair the damage, or discredit Remus enough that no one would believe him. Well the American’s might, but the larger Wizarding world wouldn’t, not if they knew he was- No. He wouldn’t do that. Couldn’t. It was against everything he stood for, it was just the type of underhanded thinking that he hated to see enacted in everyday life. He needed Remus to work with him not against him. They needed to find Harry.

“Remus, I understand, but I need your help to find Harry.”

He tilted his head, “Oh? I thought he shouldn’t have any contact with the magical world.”

“That was then,” Albus said, a tinge of anger seeping through, “this is now, he needs to be found. Anyone could have him, Remus, there are some truly terrible Muggles out there, if he were in the magical world someone would be bragging about it. You seem to have more experience in the Muggle world than I expected, I need someone to look for him. Please, Remus.”

Remus had fixed him with an unreadable face, Albus knew he’d messed up, the man in front of him was not the mild student he’d known during Hogwarts. He could see that now the war had done wonders to his personal growth. Remus Lupin was no fool, Albus himself had taught him that by making him a spy during the last war. He had miss calculated, badly it seemed, but Remus wouldn’t turn his back on Harry though Albus just knew it.

“Go.”

Albus drew himself back in surprise at the word. It had been spat at him with more fire and fury than he had anticipated.

“What?”

“I said go, leave my house, and do not contact me again unless it is to tell me where Harry is. I will not be your scapegoat if this turns wrong.”

“Remus, I never-”

“It might not be your intention, but I’ve seen how this sort of thing plays out for my kind. I can’t help you, Albus. I’ll keep an eye out certainly, but I can’t help you in the manner you’re asking. Please leave.”

“Remus-”

“I won’t ask again Professor.”

Albus straightened himself up, gathering what little pride he still possessed and nodded, “alright, I’ll let you know what I find, you’ll be the first person to know when I find Harry. Goodbye Remus.”

Albus quickly left via a turn and a pop, wondering just how he was going to find Harry.

Remus took several deep breaths to try and calm himself down. Albus knew it would only be a matter of time before he came back. He walked back to where the communicator was set up. Stakar was still there and, Remus had assumed, heard everything.

“That was Albus Dumbledore,” Remus said.

Stakar cocked an eyebrow, “Is he always so charming?”

Remus gaped at him for a moment before he burst out laughing.

“You know, I think he is, the only thing missing from that interaction was the offer of lemon drops as his eyes twinkled.”

Stakar shook his head, “do you think he’ll find out?”

“About you?”

He nodded.

“He’d have to have some really good ties to do that. I don’t see any reason why I should tell him what I know. Granted he’s going to be running around like a chicken with its head cut off looking for Harry. But from what I gather only a handful of people in the wizarding world know about extraterrestrials, I don’t think he is one of them.”

Stakar nodded, his face now very serious, “how do you think he’d go about looking?”

Remus rubbed the back of his neck as he thought, “well if I were helping him he’d probably send me to see Petunia- Lily’s sister, Harry’s Aunt- and ask where Harry was. So he’ll probably start there and go off of whatever she tells him. Which could be anything.”

“She’s a liar?”

Remus snorted, “no she’s just a hag. I can’t count the times she made Lily cry during our fifth year of school. She also managed to single handedly ruin James’ and Lily’s reception with only a few words. I wouldn’t put it past her to lie to Albus when he asks after Harry though, just to get rid of him. She's as anti-magic as they come.”

“So, he’ll probably be sent on a wild goose chase then, seeing as Aleta found him in the woods and waited until it was just her and Harris before revealing herself. Good, good we’ve got time yet.”

“He could cause problems later though,” Remus cautioned, “he does have good connections even if it’s not to the people who could help him find you.”

Stakar waved his hand, “we’ve actually been above board with Harris’ adoption, the Ancient One told us that we’ll need to go through a couple of hoops to get the proper, um, _Muggle_ documents but other than that we’re in the clear if people try and question the legitimacy of the adoption.”

“I like teaching.”

Stakar gave him a weird look before giving a mild chuckle, “oh yeah that. Are you any good?”

“My teachers all think so, I’m waiting to see what the government says.”

Stakar scoffed, “yeah well they don’t always know up from down. How would you like to teach Harris in a year?”

‘ _Did he just-_ ’ He couldn’t seriously mean that? How could he Remus Lupin, werewolf at large, teach in space? How many moons were there in the galaxy? With his luck, he’d probably end up permanently disfigured or worse permanently transformed. And what of his family? His Uncle was waiting for him to make good on his investment, his Dad would be all alone. Not to mention Dumbledore, while he was now busy he would be keeping an eye on Remus to see if he was lying about knowing where Harry was. It wasn’t possible. He couldn’t. As much as he wanted to say yes, he needed to say no.

“I...I want to say yes-”

“Great,” Stakar interrupted, “we’re planning for him to attend a school with one of his little friends but he’ll need to learn Terran studies. He’ll need to fit in ya know? So we were thinking that you could teach him a few times a week over the year? That way he’d get to know you, and learn about his homeworld at the same time. While also getting the skills he’ll need to live out here if he chooses-”

“I didn’t say yes,” Remus said, cutting the older man off, “I can’t leave and join you.”

“I wasn’t asking you to,” Stakar said with a wicked smile, “I still don’t trust you. Once a spy, always a spy if you catch my drift.”

Remus did understand.

“We can set up calls for Harris to work with you, he needs to get used to using them anyway,” Stakar continued, “if you somehow manage to convince me that you’re trustworthy then maybe we could arrange a few in-person lessons. But not until then.”

Remus nodded, “I think that’ll work.”

“Da! Mama hit Unca Yondu.”

Remus laughed as Harry’s head popped up next to Stakar’s hand. He seemed very concerned for whoever ‘Yondu’ was.

“Did he deserve it?” Stakar asked, seriously. Remus had to bite his knuckle to keep from busting his gut laughing, he would probably be the only person to teach the toddler morals and manners, he shouldn't laugh at the current situation that Aleta had placed herself in.

“Don’t know. Still talking?”

“Yes, I’m still talking with Remus, do you want to say hi again?”

“Tay,” the little boy was lifted into the frame again, “I got’s book of coolers.”

“Colors, Fledge, colors,” Stakar corrected, his face amused.

“Do you,” Remus asked, delighted to see that Harry was holding the coloring book he’d sent with Aleta.

“Yes, I like it. I cooler all the pages soon. Da, an’ Mawwie halp.”

Remus smiled, and let the four-year-old yammer on about his colors. Joy and peace came over him as he watched the happy boy talk. His guardian watching over his shoulder to ensure no harm came to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think this is a sweet deal for a certain werewolf, don't you? Let me know if you've got a favorite part, or something that made you laugh, or questions I like those too. :) 
> 
> *I wrote this while under the influence of a nasty cold. Some of it might get retconned later, b/c I wasn't thinking clearly. I will let you know if that happens.*


End file.
